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Webster 



Binghamton 



BREVET MAJOR EDWARD P. MCKINNEY 



LIFE IN TENT AND FIELD 

1861-1865 



/;^v 



E.^^McKINNEY 

Captain and commissary of subsistence under 

PHILLIP H. SHERIDAN 




^APTietveRrn 



BOSTON 
RICHARD G. BADGER 

THE GORHAM PRESS 



Copyright, 1922, by E. P. McKinnet 



All Rights Reserved 



,/Vl/^ 



C1A683711 



Made in the United States of America 



Press of 
J. J. Little & Ives Company 
New York, U. S. A. 



OCT 14 i922 



TO 

THE MEMORY OF 

MY BRAVE MOTHER 

who with unswerving devotion, gave all she 
had to the service of her country and fol- 
lowed her absent sons day and night with 
her prayers, this little volume is dedicated. 
Graven on the writer's memory is the in- 
tense longing on his mother's face as, not 
knowing she was seen, she stood watching 
the train which took him back to the army 
after he had been at home recovering from 
a wound. 



INTRODUCTION 

It is hoped that the reader of this story may 
share to some extent the interest which the writer 
found in recalling events of more than half a cen- 
tury gone. The present generation has been so 
absorbed in the recent European War that our 
Civil War seems like ancient history. 

The feeble old veterans who gather on Decora- 
tion Day are ghosts of a bygone age. The stories 
which they rehearse of the mighty events in which 
they were a part are no longer listened to with 
interest by the general public. 

There are some, however, and their number is 
increasing, who are pleased to recall the privations 
and the patriotism of those who fought for the 
preservation of the Union and made it possible for 
this country to take a deciding part in the World 
War. 

I trust that the frequent use of the first personal 
pronoun may be pardoned, in view of the fact that 
the events here related consist mostly of personal 
reminiscences written almost exclusively from 
memory. 



CONTENTS 

Slavery the Moral Cause of the Civil War, 
Also the Underlying Cause of the European. 
Changes in the Art of Warfare The Under- 
ground Railroad. Repeal of the Missouri Com- 
promise. Border Ruffians. Free-soilers. War 
in Kansas 



PAGE 



II 



II. Preparation for College at Phillips Exeter Acad- 
emy The Abolition of Slavery. Enter Yale 
in 1857. Northern Chivalry. Attack in the 
United States Senate on Charles Sumner by 
Preston Brooks. Anson Burlingame. John 
Brown of Ossawatomie and Attack at Harper s 
Ferry. Wendell Phillips. Connecticut Elec- 
tion in 1859. Abraham Lincoln i7 

III Cavalry. The Ira Harris Guard. Sixth New 

York Cavalry. General Thomas C. Devin. 
Plain Fare of Soldiers. Daniel S. Dickinson. 
Story of Horatio Seymour 27 

IV Unpreparedness. Regiment Ordered to York, 

Pennsylvania. Major Carwardine. Captain 
Hannahs. Incident at Annapolis. Cavalry 
Equipment 3i 

V The Peninsular Campaign. McClellan Made 
Commander in Chief. His Treatment of the 
Inhabitants. Unfavorable Reports in Regard 
to Him. Letter of the Author to His Mother 40 

VI. Battle of Williamsburg. "Les Enfants Perdus." 
Raid to Gloucester Court House. Magruder 
Evacuates Yorktown. Some Amusing Events 48 

VII. The Famous "Seven Days' Fight." Retreat of the 
Army to Malvern Hills. President Lincoln 
Visits McClellan— Tells a Characteristic Story 54 



8 Contents 

CHAPTER VAG^ 

VIII. Pleasant Life on the Peninsula. Confederates 
Rout the Fifth Pennsylvania Cavalry. William 
and Mary College Burned. Captain Hannahs 
Assassinated in Williamsburg 6i 

IX. The Destruction of William and Mary College — 

Not Done by Union Soldiers 66 

X. Author Promoted to First Lieutenant. General 
Burnside and Battle of Fredericksburg. Lay- 
ing of Pontoon Bridge. Horseback Ride with 
a Virginia Girl. A Malodorous Story ... 77 

XI. Fight of the Sixth New York Cavalry at Todd's 
Tavern. Hooker's Plans for the Destruction 
of Lee's Army. General Devin Orders Kee- 
nan's Charge Which Saved the Army from 
Destruction. He Says Nothing About the 
"Noble Smile." Stonewall Jackson Killed . 86 

XII. Invasion of Maryland. Pursuit of Lee. Colonel 

John S. Mosby. Gettysburg 94 

XIII. Pursuit of Lee loi 

XIV. Veteran Furlough io6 

XV. General Grant Made Commander in Chief . . 109 

XVI. Sheridan's Raid to Richmond 112 

XVII. Promotion. Explosion of Petersburg Mine. Sher- 
idan Ordered to the Shenandoah Valley . . . 119 

XVIII. Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley 123 

XIX. Attack by Mosley. The Author Wounded . . 126 

XX. Campaign in the Shenandoah Valley. Sheridan's 

Ride 137 

XXI. Expedition to Join Grant Before Richmond . . 144 

XXII. General Warren Relieved. Lee's Surrender . . 150 

XXIII. Our Last March. The Grand Review .... 156 

XXIV. Closing Scenes i^g 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Brevet Major Edward P, McKinncy .... Frontispiece 

FACING PAGE 

General Thomas C. Devin 28 

Major-General Phillip H. Sheridan 112' 

General George A. Custer i44 



LIFE IN TENT AND FIELD 



LIFE IN TENT AND FIELD 

CtL\PTER I 

SLAVERY THE MORAL CAUSE OF THE CIVIL WAR, 
ALSO THE UNDERLYING CAUSE OF THE EURO- 
PEAN. CHANGES IN THE ART OF WARFARE. 
THE UNDERGROUND RAILRO.\D. REPEAL OF 
THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. BORDER RUF- 
FIANS. FREE-SOILERS. WAR IN ICANSAS. 

In any endeavor to trace the underlying cause 
of the European or World War, we should not 
lose sight of the fact that our Civil War was the 
outcome of a constantly growing sentiment against 
human slavery, and that Europe imbibed from 
this countr)' the same spirit, which eventually 
brought the whole world into conflict. 

In this countrv' the issue was between the su- 
premacy of negro slaver}^ and its complete aboli- 
tion. In Europe it was between the power of the 
few over the lives of the people and the abolition 
of the aristocracy. 

Today there is no one who asserts the "divine 
right of Kings." If there is a King left in Europe 

II 



12 Life in Tent and Field 

he is disposed to apologize to the people for the 
title. 

"Yet I doubt not through the ages 
One increasing purpose runs, 
And the thoughts of men are widened 
With the progress of the suns." 

We who are now living cannot measure the ad- 
vance which the world has made. In fact in some 
ways it may seem that civilization has gone back- 
ward. We believe that future historians will give 
the present era credit for the longest step for- 
ward of any of the centuries. Almost all the great 
progressive periods in the World's history have 
followed an era of bloodshed. Whether universal 
peace can be brought about by a "League of 
Nations," and if it can, whether such a peace will 
contribute to the advance of mankind, is doubt- 
ful. It takes sweat and blood to break the bonds 
which have bound mankind for centuries. 

In the physical aspects of warfare since our 
Civil War there have been considerable changes, 
owing to the advance in Science and to new inven- 
tions. The use of airplanes in the late war en- 
abled the combatants to make observations of 
each others' movements to such an extent that 
the armies of both sides were compelled to con- 
ceal themselves underground. This, with the 



The Cause of The Civil War 13 

great numbers of men engaged in the European 
War, and the universal use of telephones, which 
covered every acre of ground, prevented the use 
of cavalry, especially on the Eastern front. For 
this reason the late war lacked much of the 
romance of the Civil War. 

The writer of these reminiscences, at the out- 
break of the Civil War in 1861, entered the Army 
as a Lieutenant of Cavalry and served with the 
Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac until 
the general muster out in 1865. 

Most writers on the Civil War have written 
as historians or as military critics. I shall not 
attempt anything so profound, but I hope to 
create some interest in the story of events in which 
I had a part or which came under my personal 
observation. 

I will very briefly recall some of the events 
which led to the Civil War. 

For many years prior to the election of Lincoln 
in i860, Negro Slavery had been the ruling ques- 
tion in the politics of the Nation. The South was 
determined that the new States which were being 
opened in the Southwest should be slave States. 
They also demanded the right to take their slaves 
into and out of the free States without interfer- 
ence, and that the laws of the Northern States 
should compel the return of escaped slaves to their 
owners. 



14 Life in Tent and Field 

In the North the public conscience was being 
more and more awakened to the injustice of 
human slavery. Early in the fifties some of the 
extreme radicals of the South were threatening 
secession unless their demands were complied 
with. In the North a large body of influential 
citizens led by the most gifted orators were advo- 
'cating the abolition of slavery. In Rochester, 
New York, Fred Douglas, a runaway slave, pub- 
lished a newspaper called the North Star, openly 
advocating the abolition of slavery. 

Slaves were aided into Canada through Penn- 
sylvania and New York, via the so-called Under- 
ground Railroad. This was a series of connect- 
ing stations extending from Mason and Dixon's 
line to Canada. The existence and location of 
these stations were kept absolutely secret except 
to the very few. At night when all were supposed 
to be asleep a peculiar knock was heard on the 
door of a certain house. When the door was 
opened by the master of the house, two men, one 
white and the other black, were standing outside. 
The white man, after a few passwords, disap- 
peared in the darkness. The black man was 
drawn into the house and the door locked. If 
there was no immediate pursuit the slave was fed, 
a horse harnessed, the slave delivered to the next 
station, the horse and wagon returned to the 
stable and the master of the house to his bed 



The Missouri Compromise 15 

before daylight. In some cases where pursuit was 
hot the slave was kept concealed until danger 
passed. 

In 1854, under the leadership of Stephen A. 
Douglas, the "Missouri Compromise," under 
which for thirty years slavery had been confined 
to territory South of latitude 36° 30', was re- 
pealed, and the Kansas-Nebraska bill passed, 
authorizing the first settlers of new territory to 
determine whether it should be slave or free. The 
direct object of Douglas and the Southern Demo- 
crats in passing this bill was to make the large 
territory of Kansas, which was now opened to 
settlement, a slave State. 

The Antislavery party of the North were not 
idle. Before the final passage of the bill, emi- 
grants from New England were furnished with 
"Beecher Bibles," as Springfield muskets were 
called, and rushed into Kansas. A society called 
the "New England Emigrant Aid Company" was 
incorporated under the laws of Massachusetts, 
and the rich lands of Kansas were the coveted 
prize of the adventurous spirits, who, rifle in hand, 
poured into Kansas. 

This movement was fiercely resented by the 
Southern slave-owners. The Missourians espe- 
cially, as the new territory adjoined their own 
State, had not anticipated any difficulty in making 
Kansas a slave State. Alarmed by the increasing 



1 6 Life in Tent and Field 

numbers of "Free-Soilers,'" as the Northern set- 
tlers were called, a body of five thousand Border 
Ruffians rushed across the border from Missouri 
at the time of the March election in 1855, took 
possession of the polls and elected a Legislature 
and Member of Congress. The Free-Soilers 
would not recognize this Legislature but pro- 
ceeded to elect their own Legislature and Member 
of Congress. 

For two years there was civil war in Kansas. 
The entire country was on fire with excitement, 
but neither the North nor the South was prepared 
for war, and the most prominent leaders on both 
sides put forth their best efforts to effect some 
kind of settlement. 



CHAPTER II 

PREPARATION FOR COLLEGE AT PHILLIPS EXETER 
ACADEMY. THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY. 
ENTER YALE IN I 857. NORTHERN CHIVALRY. 
ATTACK IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE ON 
CHARLES SUMNER BY PRESTON BROOKS. 
ANSON BURLINGAME. JOHN BROWN OF OSSA- 
WATOMIE ANT) ATTACK AT HARPER'S FERRY. 
WENDELL PHILLIPS. CONNECTICUT ELEC- 
TION IN 1859. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

I was prepared for college at Phillips Exeter 
Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1855- 
1S56-1857. while blood was running in Kansas. 
During my Senior year many eloquent speakers, 
including such men as Wendell Phillips. Ralph 
Waldo Emerson and Theodore Parker, spoke in 
Exeter in a new town-hall on the subject of the 
Abolition of Slaver}" and the Kansas outrages. I 
well remember an address by Emerson, at which 
a man got up from in front and walked out amid 
profound silence. Emerson looked at his watch 
and said that he found that he had been speaking: 
more than an hour and would stop. The entire 

17 



1 8 Life in Tent and Field 

audience requested him to go on and he continued 
nearly an hour longer. Nearly all the students 
of the Phillips Exeter Academy attended this 
series of lectures and became deeply interested. 

Among my classmates was Sam Fessenden, a 
son of Senator Fessenden from Maine, afterward 
Secretary of the Treasury under Lincoln. Sam 
was a small, slight, fair-haired youth of about 
seventeen years. His sympathy got so wrought, 
up that he ran away from school, went to Boston, 
obtained from the Free-Soil Committee a 
"Beecher's Bible," and went to Kansas to fight 
the Border Ruffians. Many of my class in 
Phillips Exeter, of whom a number were South- 
erners, were afterward engaged in the Civil War 
on one side or the other. 

I entered Yale College in 1857 in the Fresh- 
man class, and was graduated in 1861. There 
were several Southerners in my class. If there 
was any hostile feeling toward them. Northern 
"chivalary" did not permit its expression. In 
i860 a Secession flag appeared one morning on 
the turrets of Linonia Hall. This, however, dis- 
appeared soon after dawn, and the incident was 
dropped. Later another Secession flag appeared 
on Fort Hale, a little fort, relic of colonial days, 
in New Haven Harbor. This, too, was removed 
without causing very much excitement. 

While the question whether Kansas should be 



The Attack on Senator Sumner 19 

slave or free was in hot dispute, the Thirty-fourth 
Congress assembled. In the Senate Charles 
Sumner of Massachusetts was a leading member, 
and held much the same rank among Senators as 
Senator Lodge holds at the present time, only 
the Democrats were then in large majority. Like 
Lodge, he was a cultivated scholar and his repu- 
tation was not confined to this hemisphere. Al- 
though Sumner knew his personal danger, in a 
two-days' speech he denounced the crime against 
Kansas and all who supported it, in such scathing 
terms that the Southern members were frantic 
with anger. 

Preston Brooks of South Carolina, a member 
of the House of Representatives, encouraged by 
his Southern colleagues, took on himself the task 
of personally chastising Senator Sumner. He 
made a brutal and cowardly attack from behind 
on the Senator, who was seated at his desk in the 
Senate Chamber and unable to rise, and beat him 
over the head and shoulders with a heavy cane, 
felling him to the floor and inflicting injuries from 
which Sumner never recovered. This infamous 
assault was applauded by many Southern people. 
Women embraced Brooks with kisses in reward 
for his chivalry. 

Anson Burlingame, a member from Massachu- 
setts, in a speech before the House, characterized 
the deed as the work of a coward in such bitter 



20 Life in Tent and Field 

terms that Brooks was stung to the quick and 
challenged him to a duel. Burlingame chose rifles 
for weapons and designated Canada as the dueling: 
ground. Brooks backed down with the excuse 
that he could not go to Canada. 

Among the Free-Soilers who were engaged in 
fighting the Border Ruffians in Kansas, a promi- 
nent figure was John Brown, or as he became 
known, "John Brown of Ossawatomie." Brown 
raised a company of volunteers, in which were 
his four sons. He called them the "Free-State 
Regular Volunteers of Kansas," and while he re- 
ceived some outside aid he spent his own means 
in their support. 

John Brown was compelled to leave Ossa- 
watomie, where he had made his home, and where 
his experience of the murderous gang of Border 
Ruffians so embittered him against the institution 
of slavery that his life was not weighed in the 
balance. 

On October 17, 1859, the world was startled 
by news of an attack by twenty men on the United 
States Arsenal at Harpers Ferry. Harper's 
Ferry is a small town on the Virginia side of the 
Potomac, where the Shenandoah, breaking 
through the mountains from the South, joins the 
Potomac. It is one of the most picturesque spots 
in America and a fit setting for John Brown's 
wonderful exploit. 



John Brown 21 

John Brown sacrificed his life and that of three 
sons, and though "his body Hes moldering in the 
grave his soul goes marching on." His professed 
object was to start a rebellion of the slaves, in 
which he failed, and he was promptly hung at 
Charlestown, Virginia. 

Brown was a very religious man, of superior 
mind and absolute devotion to what he consid- 
ered his duty. By most people he is called a 
fanatic. Some, however, consider him a seer who 
foresaw, in his self-sacrifice and the sacrifice of 
his three sons, the liberation of his country from 
the curse of human slavery. 

Wendell Phillips of Boston was known through- 
out the country as the most finished orator of the 
times. In those days every city and every village 
had its Lyceum, before which weekly lectures were 
given, attended by throngs of people. No lecture 
course was complete without Wendell Phillips, 
and his engagements were made a year or more 
in advance. He was one of the most ardent anti- 
slavery speakers and had a great influence in 
arousing the people of the North to an abhor- 
rence of human slavery. 

A laughable incident occurred in 1858. Wen- 
dell Phillips, while delivering one of his char- 
acteristic lectures in the South Church on College 
Street in New Haven, to a large and intensely 
interested audience, was interrupted after one of 



22 Life in Tent and Field 

his bitter sentences, by a loud and emphatic hiss 
from the gallery. Phillips stopped, and for a 
moment there was profound silence, until a clear 
voice rang out from the opposite gallery, — "Go 
on, Mr. Phillips, it's only a Freshman." After 
the applause and laughter which followed there 
was no more hissing. 

We had in college a student, originally from 
the South, who was indebted to the North for 
his education. His father was at that time a 
minister of one of the New Haven churches, and 
some of the family had married in the North. 
The young man had talent, was prominent in 
scholarship, in debate, and in athletics. At one 
of Wendell Phillips' lectures he arose in his seat, 
accused the speaker of rank heresy, and made 
some rather offensive remarks. Mr. Phillips 
listened patiently until he had finished; then with 
perfect courtesy replied in such a smooth and sar- 
castic way that our young man had to retire in 
confusion. When the war began, this young man 
returned to Richmond and became an officer in 
the Southern Army. After the Battle of Five 
Forks I met him marching along the road in com- 
pany with five thousand other prisoners in charge 
of Brayton Ives, one of my classmates in Yale, 
then Colonel of a Connecticut Regiment of 
Cavalry. 

The State election in Connecticut in 1859 was 



Lincoln Elected i860 23 

considered by the different political parties of 
the country to have an important bearing on the 
coming Presidential election. Almost every po- 
litical orator of note from all quarters — East, 
West, North and South — gave addresses in New 
Haven. These were attended by large bodies of 
students. One of the speakers was Abraham 
Lincoln, who at that time was comparatively little 
known. * The universal verdict of the students 
was that Lincoln's speech was the best political 
speech delivered during the campaign. 

The Presidential election was held Tuesday, 
November 6, i860. Lincoln was elected by an 
immense majority. His election was the signal 
for the secession of several of the slave States, 
South Carolina in the lead. 

In December, the first shot, the signal for war, 
was fired on the United States forts in the Har- 
bor of Charleston, South Carolina. 

In the winter of 1 860-1 861, after the act of 
secession by South Carolina, companies for the 
purpose of military drill were formed by the Yale 
students. Officers and drill-masters were chosen 
from among their own number. No assistance 
nor encouragement was given by the authorities 
at Washington — none was to be expected. The 
Government under President Buchanan was too 
feeble even to resent the attack on Fort Sumter, 
and Buchanan was loyal only to the Democratic 



24 Life in Tent and Field 

party, of which the disloyal South formed a 
majority. 

The students from the South, who graduated 
with me in 1861, were aided by the college au- 
thorities in getting to their homes through the 
hostile lines. 

It was my intention, while in college, to take a 
course in Civil Engineering, and I made arrange- 
ments with Professor Mahan at West Point for 
private instruction. My well laid plans, however, 
were changed by the course of events. 

On July 25, 1 861, E. D. Morgan, Governor 
of New York, at the request of President Lincoln, 
issued a proclamation calling for a volunteer force 
of twenty-five thousand men to serve for three 
years, or during the war. Regiments of infantry 
at that time consisted of ten companies of one 
hundred men each. Twenty-five regiments were 
soon under way. 

The country was not then prepared for con- 
scription and the Government was not strong 
enough to enforce one. In the Northern States, 
while there were some Copperheads, as those op- 
posed to the war were called, the great majority 
were loyal and ready to fight for the preserva- 
tion of the Union. The Incentives to enlistment 
in the late war would not have filled the ranks 
with volunteers as in the Civil War, 

Every Northern State was called upon to fur- 



Organization of Regiments 25 

nish its quota of volunteer regiments. Men of 
influence were authorized by the Governors to 
raise regiments and were appointed Colonels. 
These newly appointed Colonels were assisted by 
others of local influence in getting volunteer en- 
listments. When sufl^icient men were enlisted to 
form the nucleus of a Company, an election was, 
held and a Captain chosen by ballot. In most 
cases the man who had been active in getting the 
enlistments was chosen Captain. First and Second 
Lieutenants were sometimes chosen by ballot and 
sometimes appointed by the Governor on the 
recommendation of the Colonel. 

It would seem that regiments so organized 
could not prove as efficient as the regiments we 
sent abroad, who had the benefit of many months' 
training under experienced oflficers before sailing 
for France, and of a second course of drilling 
on French soil before going to the front. It is, 
however, remarkable in how short a time both 
ofl^cers and men became well disciplined and well 
organized troops. The world has never seen 
better or more heroic regiments than were sent 
into the field during the Civil War. 

What was most lacking was a General Staff — 
generals trained in tactics and capable of 
handling large bodies of men. In too many cases 
generals were appointed who had been promi- 
nent in politics and had no other qualifications. 



26 Life in Tent and Field 

Lincoln Is credited with saying at one time when 
he had kept a general waiting while he gave 
audience to a private soldier "that he could make 
plenty of Brigadier Generals but could not make 
a private soldier." 



CHAPTER III 

CAVALRY. THE IRA HARRIS GUARD. SIXTH NEW 
YORK CAVALRY. GENERAL THOMAS C. DEVIN. 
PLAIN FARE OF SOLDIERS. DANIEL S. DICKIN- 
SON. STORY OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

In August, 1 86 1, after my graduation fromH 
college, I received letters from a classmate urging 
me to raise a company for an Artillery Regiment 
then being formed in Elmira, New York. 

I started to enlist men, but by the time I had 
secured the requisite number the Regiment had 
been completed. I had an offer of a commission 
in a Cavalry Regiment then being formed on 
Staten Island, and consented to join it provided 
the men I had secured were willing. I called them 
together and every one agreed to stand by me. 
This Regiment was called the "Ira Harris 
Guard," so named after Ira Harris, a United_j 
States Senator, and organized at his solicitation, 
under orders from the War Department, to meet 
the need of Cavalry to oppose the mounted troops 
of the South. 

Cavalry Regiments were composed of twelve 
27 



28 Life in Tent and Field 

Companies of one hundred men each, besides 
Regimental and Company officers. One Regi- 
ment of the Ira Harris Guard was first organized, 
and Colonel O. DeForest of New York City was 
assigned to its command. Cavalry was a popular 
arm of the service, and DeForest continued to 
accept Company after Company until he had more 
than enough Companies for one Regiment. He 
doubtless expected to get enough Companies for 
a Brigade and to become Brigade Commander 
with the title of Brigadier General, but was or- 
dered into the field with the first twelve Com- 
panies, and his Regiment became the Fifth New 
York Cavalry. 

r Governor Morgan ordered the completion of 
another Regiment by adding to the Companies 
left by DeForest, enough to make up the twelve 
Companies requisite. This Second Regiment was 
known throughout the war as the Sixth New York 
Cavalry, and Thomas C. Devin was appointed 

l^to its command. 

Devin had been Lieutenant Colonel of the First 
Regiment of New York State Militia in New 
York City. At the outbreak of the war he had 
command of a Cavalry Regiment three months 
in West Virginia. Throughout the war he bore 
a high reputation among army officers. He rose 
by sheer merit to be a Brigadier General and 




GENERAL THOMAS C. DEVIN 



Soldiers Had No Luxuries 29 

Major General by brevet, although men with a 
political backing, but no established military repu- 
tation, were at times appointed over his head. 
Few volunteer officers rendered more meritorious 
service than General Thomas C. Devin. 

While on Staten Island the Companies of the~^ 
Sixth New York Cavalry had daily drill in Com- 
pany Evolution and in saber exercise, and received 
clothing, tents, camp equipment and sabers. Each 
Company was marched three times a day to the 
cook house for meals, which were eaten standing 
at long board tables in a rough shed, open at one 
side. The fare was very plain but sufficient. We_^ 
had no pies, cakes, jam, nor dainties of any kind. 
There were no contributions from patriotic citi- 
zens, no cigarettes, no peanuts — from Red Cross 
canteens — to help win the war. 

The Company of which I became Second Lieu- 
tenant, became Company "G." When it left Bing- 
hamton we had a farewell dinner, and the men 
were addressed with kindly advice by Daniel S. 
Dickinson. Mr. Dickinson had been a prominent 
United States Senator, widely known as "Scrip- 
ture Dick" because of the frequent quotations 
from the Bible in his speeches. He was a War 
Democrat, a staunch supporter of Lincoln's Ad- 
ministration, and stood high in the Councils of 
the Nation. In his native city his memory is 



30 Life in Tent and Field 

held by all in loving remembrance for his kindly 
disposition and interest in all the affairs of the 
city, as well as for his recognized ability. 

Horatio Seymour, ex-Governor, and one of the 
most prominent Democrats in New York State, 
was opposed to the war, and openly hostile to 
the Administration. To escape the storm of 
obloquy which broke on the heads of all Copper- 
heads, as those were called who sympathized with 
the South and opposed the Administration, Sey- 
mour retired from Utica, his home city, and hid 
himself from the public. Some of his friends 
called for him to come out and show himself, 
without avail. Daniel S. Dickinson, in one of his 
speeches, said Seymour was like the man who was 
chased by his wife and hid under the bed. His 
wife ordered him to come out, and he answered, 
"No, while I have the spirit of a man I won't come 
out from under this bed." 

In 1862 I met Mr. Seymour in a little hotel in 
Wisconsin where he was looking after some prop- 
erty. He was a good talker. He spoke very 
kindly of Mr. Dickinson and related this story 
on himself. 



CHAPTER IV 

UNPREPAREDNESS. REGIMENT ORDERED TO YORK, 
PENNSYLVANIA. MAJOR CARWARDINE. CAP- 
TAIN HANNAHS. INCIDENT AT ANNAPOLIS. 
CAVALRY EQUIPMENT. 

In the latter part of December, 1861, the Sixth 
New York Cavalry Regiment was ordered from 
Camp Scott on Staten Island, to York, Pennsyl- 
vania. Simon Cameron, then Secretary of War, 
was a Pennsylvanian and favored his own State. 

On the morning of December 23, tents were 
taken down, all regimental paraphernalia packed 
in wagons, and the Regiment formed in line. 
There we stood all day in a drizzling rain. The 
Quartermaster, whose duty it was to provide 
transportation, had reported that vessels would be 
at the dock early in the morning to take us to 
Elizabethport, New Jersey, and urged the greatestj 
haste in getting on board. It was nearly night 
when the vessels reached the dock and we were 
embarked on two barges in tow of a tug. We 
were out all night on the decks of the barges, 
exposed in wet clothes to a piercing wind. This 

31 



32 Life in Tent and Field 

engagement with the elements was more fatal 
than any battle in which the Regiment was en- 
gaged during the war. Thirty men are reported 
I to have died from the exposure that night. This 
disaster was due to want of experience, lack of 
preparation, and bad management on the part 
of the Quartermaster's Department. 
r" From Elizabethport we were taken by rail to 
York, Pennsylvania, where we spent the rest of 
the winter in barracks. During our stay in York, 
Colonel Devin instructed the officers in the move- 
ments of Company, Battalion, and Regiment, and 
had daily drills in dismounted movements. 

In March the Regiment was moved to Perry- 
ville, Maryland, where some horses were pro- 
vided, enough to mount Companies "D," "H" 
and "K." These mounted Companies were sent 
to the Peninsula under Major Clarkson, with 
orders to report to General Sumner commanding 
the Second Corps of McClellan's army. To com- 
plete the Battalion, Company "F" was ordered 
to Washington, where it was to be mounted pre- 
paratory to joining Companies "D," "H" and 
L^'K" on the Peninsula. At my urgent request I 
was assigned to duty with this Company. 

Company "F" was first under command of John 
Carwardine, a young Englishman who was a fine- 
looking soldier and who became very popular. In 



How Horses Were Supplied 33 

the organization of the Regiment, Carwardine 
was made Major, and D. C. Hannahs became 
Captain of Company "F." Some months later 
Carwardine resigned and went home to England. 
One of the officers of the Regiment, after the war, 
visited him in England and found him an Earl 
of the realm. When he joined the Sixth New 
York Cavalry he was a second son, but hearing 
of the death of his father and older brother, he 
returned home to take possession of his title and 
estate. 

Captain Hannahs was a graduate of Yale Col- 
lege, of winning address and superior refinement 
of manners. We were acquainted in college and 
became most intimate friends. At my request I 
was assigned to duty with his Company. My 
relations to the officers of Company "G" were 
not congenial and the assignment to Company 
"F" gave me an opportunity to get at once into 
active service. 

On reaching Washington I was sent by Colonel 
Devin to Annapolis, Maryland, to draw horses 
for Company "F." Lieutenant Howell, a profes- 
sional horseman, was sent with me to make selec- 
tions. At Annapolis was a large corral or horse 
camp, containing several thousand horses which 
had been assembled by the Government from all 
parts of the country. As was to be expected, many 



34 Life in Tent and Field 

farmers and others took occasion to turn over 
to Uncle Sam runaways, kickers, cribbers, and 
horses that had some vicious traits. 

The officer in charge at Annapolis was a Quar- 
termaster of the regular army, and like many 
Regulars had a supreme contempt for volunteer 
officers. He had magnificent quarters in the 
Naval Academy buildings. In order to gain ad- 
mission to his private office, one must enter an 
anteroom and have his name and business an- 
nounced in the inner office by an orderly. When 
I obtained access to his august presence, and 
humbly presented my order for horses, I was told 
to make my own selections. 

Howell was a good judge of horses and selected 
one hundred of the best the corral contained. As 
fast as the selections were made they were sent 
down to the grounds of the Naval Academy and 
placed in an enclosure. This took all day. The 
next morning they had broken the enclosure and 
were scattered all over the beautiful grounds. 

I appealed to the Quartermaster for help to 
collectjhe horses and to load them on the rail- 
road cars. He not only refused help, but damned 
me and all volunteer officers up hill and down, 
till the air was blue. In despair I wired the situa- 
tion to Colonel Devin in Washington. In a short 
time a telegram from Washington, from the War 



Cavalry Equipment 35 

Department, reached the Quartermaster. The 
atmosphere suddenly changed. His Majesty 
made many apologies; sent men to collect the ani- 
mals and load them on the cars under the super- 
vision of Howell and myself. From Annapolis 
they were forwarded to Alexandria for equip- 
ment. 

Cavalry equipment consisted of saddles, bridles, 
etc., for the horses, camp kettles and some other 
utensils for cooking, shelter tents for the soldiers, 
wall tents for the officers, and a large tent for 
hospital. 

Many of the cooking utensils, and everything ' 
which could be dispensed with, which added to 
the weight, were later abandoned. Even the sad- 
dles were lightened by taking off the solid leather 
skirts. Many of the troops reduced the weight 
by stripping the saddle of both the skirt and the 
sweat leather under the soldiers' legs, leaving only 
the wooden saddle tree and a strap from which 
hung the wooden stirrup. In this shape the saddle 
had only about one-fourth its original weight. _^ 

Each soldier had one piece of drilling, about 
six feet square. This had buttonholes on each 
edge and buttons four inches in from the edge. 
By buttoning two together, and stretching them 
over a pole supported by two crotched sticks set 
in the ground, two men could sleep on the ground 



36 Life in Tent and Field 

under the shelter afforded. Sometimes four men 
would each contribute his piece of canvas and all 
sleep under the one tent. 

In the early part of the war each Company 
had a pack, mule to carry the extra equipment. 
Later, every Cavalry man carried, rolled up and 
strapped to his saddle, his square of shelter tent, 
blanket and overcoat. Hanging to his saddle was 
a frying pan, and in his saddle bags, from three 
to five days' rations of hard tack, coffee and sugar, 
sometimes a piece of pork. Around his waist was 
a belt, supporting saber and large army revolver, 
and from a ring in the saddle, in front of his right 
knee, hung his carbine. The carbines used in the 
latter part of the war were the Spencer breech 
loaders, carrying seven conical balls in the stock, 
while a further supply was carried in the saddle 
bags. Thus equipped. Cavalry Regiments were 
ready, mounted or dismounted, to meet the enemy. 

r Most Cavalry fighting was done dismounted. 
Each Company, when ordered out of camp, was 
formed in double rank, front and rear, and each 

^rank counted off by fours. That is, the man on 
the right of each line began by counting "one"; 
the next man "two"; the next "three"; the next 
"four." The fifth man would begin again with 
"one," and so to the end of the line. The Com- 
pany would then, at the order, wheel by fours. 



From Washington to the Peninsula 37 

forming a column four men abreast. At the order 
to dismount, Number One would take the bridles 
of Numbers Two, Three and Four. Numbers 1 
Two, Three and Four would advance on foot in 
open formation, carrying their carbines, and leav- 
ing their sabers on their horses. The line thus 
formed made a formidable force, and often were 
a match for more than their number of infantry. 
When compelled to fall back, they could reach 
their horses and make a quick getaway. 

After obtaining equipment in Washington, 
Company "G," men and horses, were loaded on 
two schooners, and in tow of a steam tug started 
down the Potomac River to join the Army of the 
Potomac under McClellan, on the Peninsula 
formed by the York and James Rivers. 

The Captain of this tug had been employed in 
Washington on a large steamer, for which he 
said the Government paid one thousand dollars 
a day. It was occupied solely by General Mc- 
Clellan and staff as headquarters. We were more 
than surprised at the unfavorable opinion he had 
formed of McClellan. 

He said that McClellan was without nerve and 
lacked decision. One example he gave, out of 
many, was not easi|y forgotten. He said that at 
one time McClellan had ordered a general review, 
of the Army for the next day, and in the morning 



38 Life in Tent and Field 

felt indisposed and had a headache, and his wife 
persuaded him to issue orders postponing the 
review. 

Near the head of the Chesapeake Bay our little 
fleet encountered a violent storm and we were 
compelled to lie at anchor more than a day. Cap- 
tain Hannahs and I, with some men, went ashore 
in a boat and started toward a house some half 
mile away. Here I got my first sight of a colored 
slave. 

An old negro was setting fence posts — at least 
he had been, but was sitting beside a small bon- 
fire. We asked him what wages he got. He said 
he "done got no wages," The work he had done 
was not a fourth of what a white man in the North 
would have done in the same time. We told him 
he was working too hard, and he said "I guess I 
is, Massa." He remained, as long as we saw him, 
seated by the fire. 

We encountered a flock of sheep, and the sol- 
diers with us killed one or two, which we took 
aboard, where they were served, as we were short 
of meat, for dinner. Next morning an orderly 
came aboard with a letter to the commanding 
officer, requesting that the party who had been 
ashore report to the Provost Marshal of the dis- 
trict. Captain Hannahs and I went ashore and 
proceeded to a large and elegant farmhouse, 
where the Provost had his headquarters. We 



A Lieutenant in Clover 39 

found a young man wearing First Lieutenant's 
shoulder straps, in a large, well furnished room, 
in which, beside himself were a fine looking 
woman, and two very pretty young women of 
eighteen or twenty years. The elder woman was 
chief inquisitor, but Captain Hannahs' gentle- 
manly appearance and suavity of manner made 
a decided impression. He explained that his men 
were stormbound and without rations and that 
Uncle Sam would pay for the mutton. We had 
some light refreshment and were permitted to 
depart in peace. I think we left some kind of 
receipt, and it is probable the sheep were after- 
ward paid for with abundant interest. 



CHAPTER V 

THE PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN. MCCLELLAN MADE 
COMMANDER IN CHIEF. HIS TREATMENT OF 
THE INHABITANTS. UNFAVORABLE REPORTS 
IN REGARD TO HIM. LETTER OF THE AUTHOR 
TO HIS MOTHER. 

After the Battle of Bull Run, Sunday, July 21, 
General George B. McClellan, who had gained 
reputation in the Middle West, was appointed 
Commander of the Army of the Potomac, by 
President Lincoln, and November i. Commander 
in Chief of all the forces of the North. 

McClellan was of attractive appearance, had 
been educated at West Point, had served under 
General Scott in Mexico, and had been engaged 
in various engineering enterprises. During the 
War of the Crimea he had gone abroad as one 
of three commissioners to observe military opera- 
tions in Europe. In 1857 he resigned his com- 
mission in the Army to accept the position of 

Chief Engineer of the Illinois Central Railroad, 

40 



General McClellan 4i 

and later became President of the Ohio & Missis- 
sippi Railroad. At the outbreak of the war he 
was appointed Governor of Ohio, Major General 
of the forces of that State, and almost imme- 
diately afterward was given by the United States 
Government command of the Department of 
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Pennsylvama and Vir- 
ginia, and the troops under his command were 
successful in some small engagements 

His appointment to the command of the Arnriy 
was hailed with enthusiasm by the people of the 
North, and he was universally acclaimed a second 
Napoleon. That he was entitled to great credit 
for the organization and equipment of our armies 
is universally conceded. His conduct of the Penin- 
sular Campaign has been severely criticized, and 
he was accused of being lukewarm in his loyalty 
I heard while on the Peninsula, among officers ot 
various ranks, a great deal of criticism. He was 
accused by Army officers of unnecessary delays, 
of having his headquarters always at a safe dis- 
tance from the battlefields, and of taking pains to 
protect the inhabitants to the detriment of his 
troops. At many plantations where the family 
and servants were at home undisturbed, the wells 
and springs were guarded by sentinels from our 
Regiments, while our soldiers had to get drinking 
water from streams and pools. 

The transfer of the Army to the Virginia 



42 Life in Tent and Field 

Peninsula was due to McClellan, and was doubt- 
less a wise strategical move, although It ended in 
disaster and the removal of McClellan. 

On April 2, 1862, he moved his headquarters 
from Washington, to join his army on the Penin- 
sula. April 4 the Army was put in motion toward 
Yorktown, but was halted at the strong line of 
fortifications which Magruder had constructed 
across the Peninsula from the York River to the 
James, and which were unknown to McClellan. 

The next day after the sheep episode, Company 
"F" arrived on the Peninsula and disembarked 
between Fortress Monroe and Yorktown. There 
were no docks and the troops were landed in boats. 
The horses were hoisted by a canvas under the 
belly, swung out over the side, and by an ingen- 
ious contrivance of the sailors, dropped into the 
water, and permitted to swim ashore. 

It was toward the middle of April when we 
landed on the Peninsula, and we remained in camp 
where we landed until May 5, when the enemy 
evacuated Yorktown. This short interval was 
improved by daily instruction of the troops in 
mounted drill and the care and use of their 
horses. A Battalion of Cavalry consisted of four 
Companies, one-third of a Regiment. Company 
"F" was the Fourth Company of the Sixth New 
York to arrive on the Peninsula, and completed 
the Battalion. 



Fort of Yorktown 43 

My college room-mate, John Marshall, was on 
the staff of General Barry, Chief of Artillery of 
McClellan's Army, and I had an opportunity with 
him of inspecting the siege works. Over one hun- 
dred siege guns had been placed in batteries. 
Commanding the Fort of Yorktown, parallel 
trenches had been dug in zigzag lines toward the 
Fort, and through these trenches we got within 
easy rifle-shot of the Fort, and were fired on by 
the men in the parapets if we raised our heads 
above the trenches. The Fort was reached by 
the fire of our gunboats and of batteries placed 
on the banks of the river. 

Since the above was written I have been handed 
a letter written by me May 8, 1862, and will give 
it entire, verbatim. 

Camp near Yorktown, 
May 8, 1862. 
Dear Mother: 

I have written to you several times since I 
received a letter from home. You must have writ- 
ten without my getting your letter, for it is im- 
possible that you could neglect me so long. 

Since Company "F" landed here I have been 
busy enough, drilling horses and helping to set 
the men up in horseback exercises with Captain 
Hannahs' Company. Although we have been 
hard at work I have enjoyed myself very much. 

When we arrived at Ship Point, on the last day 
of April, I found a more lively scene than I had 



44 Li/^ in Tent and Field 

ever before witnessed. Hundreds of vessels of all 
sizes and descriptions filled the harbor, many of 
which I had before seen in New York, New Ha- 
ven and on the Sound. Steam tugs were plying back 
and forth, towing vessels filled with troops, horses, 
cannon and ammunition of all descriptions. 

We came on shore in a small boat, carefully 
avoiding the countless moving vessels, and found 
the whole coast lined with troops, tents, camps, 
piles of cannon, cannon balls and shell, and the 
same activity as on the water. Almost the first 
person I met was Joe Twitchell, a classmate of 
Captain Hannahs', and now Chaplain of the 
Seventy-first New York. A few minutes later 
someone hit me a rap on the back which almost 
knocked me down, and turning round, full of in- 
dignation, I was almost hugged to death by John 
Tyler, a classmate of mine and now on General 
Smith's staff. 

While we were all talking Bob Fitzhugh walks 
up and surprises us all. Bob's battery was en- 
camped just opposite and not a stone's throw 
from my Battalion. 

After spending as much time with them as we 
could spare we came over to camp, found our 
other Companies busy as could be practising all 
sorts of mounted maneuvers. We have been at 
the same kind of work ever since. 

Last Friday Bob Fitzhugh walked into my tent, 
and who should follow him but Johnny Marshall. 
He, you know, is on General Barry's staff, and 
was here on some business. Barry's headquarters 
are near McClellan's and as Johnny was in a hurry 




GENERAL THOMAS C. DEVIN 



Througli the Parallels 45 

we, that is Captain Hannahs and I, engaged to 
visit him the next morning. 

So on Saturday, Joe Twitchell came over, and 
all three of us started on horseback, and after 
riding a mile and three-quarters, following the 
telegraph wire through a perfect labyrinth of 
camps, reached a very pleasant grassy spot on a 
little hill surrounded by deep ravines, on which 
General McClellan and many other Generals with 
their staffs had pitched their camps. After we 
had stopped a few minutes, taken a look at all 
the distinguished officers, etc., etc., Johnny Mar- 
shall ordered out his horse and piloted us through 
the batteries and parallels. We could hear the 
constant booming of guns and see shells bursting 
in the air on all sides. 

It was perfectly amazing to see the amount of 
work that had been performed by the soldiers. 
Miles upon miles of good roads have been made 
through swamps and over hills, and over them 
have been transported guns, ammunition, forage, 
provisions, and other things in untold amounts. 

One battery which we visited contained ten 
mortars, each weighing over seventeen thousand 
pounds and capable of throwing missiles of nearly 
three hundred pounds' weight. 

Leaving our horses in a ravine we advanced 
on foot along a trench filled with soldiers, until 
we came to the James River, within a quarter of 
a mile of the enemy's batteries, and the nearest 
point of our lines. 

Here we left the trench, and mounting a high 
point of the river bank, took out a glass and began 



46 Life in Tent and Field 

leisurely to survey the enemy's works. We could 
see the houses of Yorktown, the different lines 
of fortifications, and the men stirring around in 
them, very distinctly. We also had a fine view 
of Gloucester Point opposite Yorktown, and of 
the rebel flags flying in both places. Before we 
had been here long I saw through the glass some 
men busy with the guns in a shore battery, which 
was just below us, and presently the smoke rolled 
out in a quick puff. We cried "Down," and as 
we dropped to the ground a cannon ball went 
whizzing over us. This was quickly followed by 
a shell which also went over us and burst beyond 
us. 

We concluded that we had now seen about 
enough from that point, so we started down the 
entrenchments and visited Battery No. i. This 
Battery contained immense Parrott guns and gave 
the enemy great trouble. They were constantly 
firing at it, but the day we were there only one 
man had been hurt, and he slightly. 

We returned to camp about noon. On that day 
there was constant and heavy firing which was 
continued on the next. Monday our troops 
marched into Yorktown and four thousand 
Cavalry and several Batteries followed the re- 
treating enemy. Yesterday and today there has 
been constant fighting and many have been killed 
on each side. 

We are now doing patrol duty, but expect soon 
to be at West Point, and perhaps in a week we 
shall be in Richmond. 

We caught a rebel deserter tonight who said 
that the rebels were driven out of Williamsburg. 



A Letter Home 47 

He said that they deserted Yorktown because they 
had positive information that McClellan had one 
hundred and fifty thousand troops. He also told 
of the number and size of his batteries and ^ns 
and of his plans for cutting off their retreat. 1 he 
rebel army is constantly growmg smaller and 
smaller by desertions, and m a fortnight i think 
Virginia will be cleaned out. 

Write immediately for I am very anxious to 
hear. I am in exceedingly good health and spirits, 
only for my anxiety about you. Direct to Lieu- 
tenant E. P. McKinney, Sixth N. Y. V. Cavalry, 
Second Army Corps under General Sumner, Army 
of the Potomac. . 

I have been writing on a small box improvised 
for the occasion, while all the rest are sound 
asleep, so please remember that I have written 
while I was tired and my mind weary as well as 
my body. 

Much love to all, from 

Your affectionate Son, 

E. P. McKinney. 



CHAPTER VI 

BATTLE OF WILLIAMSBURG. "lES ENFANTS 
PERDUS." RAID TO GLOUCESTER COURT 
HOUSE. MAGRUDER EVACUATES YORKTOWN. 
SOME AMUSING EVENTS. 

When McClellan's Army went to the Penin- 
sula, General Magruder was sent by Lee to delay 
his advance toward Richmond. He had a small 
force compared with McClellan's, and doubtless 
if he had been pushed would have got out of 
Yorktown a month earlier. 

On the fifth of May, Magruder retired toward 
Williamsburg, where he had thrown up some 
earthworks and constructed a fort. Here oc- 
curred the first real fight of the war. The loss 
on both sides was severe. In the road leading 
through Yorktown and toward WiUiamsburg the 
enemy had planted bombs with a percussion fuse 
so exposed as to cause an explosion fatal to the 
man or horse who stepped on it. I saw a group 
of soldiers examining what appeared to be a fuse 
of a shell in the road. One man said he would 
gamble five dollars that it was no percussion 



''Les Enfants Perdus" 49 

shell. He picked It up and it proved to be a lock 
with the brass keyhole exposed. 

The pursuit of Magruder as far as the Chicka- 
hominy took nearly a month, whereas it should 
have been accomplished in a few days. Another 
month was spent in front of Richmond in the 
Chickahominy swamps, the men dying like flies. 

In the meantime Companies "F" and "H" of 
the Sixth New York, under Captain William P. 
Hall, were left at Yorktown and remained until 
the middle of July. While there we were en- 
camped near a Regiment of Frenchmen named 
"Les Enfants Perdus." The officers of this Regi- 
ment were very friendly and visited us a good 
deal. They liked to borrow a horse and explore 
the country. We had a large, powerful horse that 
was a confirmed runaway. We lent him to a 
French officer and told him if he were not careful 
the horse would run away with him. He was posi- 
tive, however, that he could control him. He had 
not got very far when the horse came tearing back 
through the center of the French camp, knocking 
down a whole street of tents and scattering the 
"lost children" in all directions. The air was 
vibrant with French oaths. 

Early in June our two Companies, "F" and 
"H," with a battery of artillery, all under Cap- 
tain Hall, crossed the York River on a large steam 
ferry to the North side, and made a raid to 



50 Life in Tent and Field 

Gloucester Court House. The country at that 
time was very beautiful. Gloucester County had 
experienced none of the ravages of war. The 
inhabitants had heard of our approach and no 
whites were to be seen. Negroes, however, lined 
the road, gazing with curiosity at the Yankee 
troops. In front of one Virginia mansion, about 
fifty negroes were seated on the fence. They were 
of all shades, from deep black to almost pure 
white. We were nearly as much interested in 
them as they in us. 

We encountered no enemy force but chased sev- 
eral mounted pickets. One of our men who was 
left at the corner of a crossroad was killed and 
found dead by us on our return. We got to the 
Court House about dark. Here was a large store 
owned by a man named Talafiero, a relative of 
the rebel General Talafiero. The postofiice was 
kept in the store. During the night the soldiers 
entered the store and took all the mail and doubt- 
less helped themselves to anything they wanted. 

In the morning Talafiero came down and in- 
quired who was in command. I introduced him 
to Captain Hall, who received him with the ut- 
most politeness. 

Captain Hall: "I am very pleased to meet 

you, Mr. Talafiero." 
Talafiero: "Your men have broken open 

my store and taken all my goods." 



Private Property Respected 51 

Captain Hall: "Oh, no, my men wouldn't 
do such a thing." 

TalafierO: "But they have. Are not these 
your men? Look around and see what they 
have." 

Captain Hall: "Why, what have you lost 
out of your store?" 

Talafiero: "One thing, I had forty ounces 
of quinine and it's all gone. It cost me 
twenty-five dollars an ounce in gold." 

Captain Hall: "Why, my dear Mr. Tala- 
fiero, you paid too much for it. ( Turning to 
Dr. Clark.) Dr. Clark, what is quinine 
worth?" 

Dr. Clark: "It is quoted at five dollars an 
ounce in Philadelphia." 

Captain Hall: "There, I told you you paid 
too much for it." 

From the reports Talafiero had received of the 
General orders McClellan had issued in regard to 
molesting private property, he evidently expected 
pay for his property. He, however, got scant 
satisfaction from Captain Hall. 

Talafiero had a stable of fine horses which I 
visited. One mare I was told cost him over a 
thousand dollars. After McClellan was relieved 
from command horses were considered contra- 
band of war. It has always remained a source 



52 Life in Tent and Field 

of regret to me that I did not confiscate that mare. 
She was certainly a beauty. On our return to 
Yorktown It was discovered that a number of the 
soldiers had new mounts. They had quietly ex- 
changed their horses for better ones. 

For a week or more while at Yorktown I was 
engaged scouring the Peninsula with a small body 
of Cavalry, gathering arms and ammunition that 
had been left by both armies and picking up an 
occasional Johnny who was ti-ylng to steal a visit 
home or was scouting about our camp. From a 
barn at Lee's Mills I removed a large quantity 
of wheat in which were buried percussion bombs 
to explode If the cap were struck by a shovel. 
It was a favorite pastime of the Johnnies bury- 
ing these shells In hopes of killing some Yankee. 

One day on a lonely road some miles out of 
Yorktown toward Richmond, I ran across a car- 
riage drawn by two horses, containing a lady and 
a boy about twelve years old. The lady replied' 
rather unwillingly to my questions. The boy was 
full of bravado and ruffled up his feathers like 
a young turkey cock. I assured the lady that we 
were not making war on women and children, but 
that if she could not control the youngster a very 
powerful corporal who was with us would take 
him across his knee and give him a Yankee lesson 
In deportment. 

On one occasion I camped over night on what 



Some Amusements 53 

had been a large plantation on the James River. 
On this plantation, and belonging to it, besides 
numbers of negro cabins, were a gristmill, saw- 
mill, blacksmith shop, and a general repair shop. 
The main house was not large and had evidently 
been an overseer's house. More than a hundred 
darkies had congregated there. In the evening 
they held a camp-meeting at which a Methodist 
Corporal of Company "F" presided, and which 
I attended as a spectator. Those darkies got into 
such a frenzied religious excitement as I have 
never seen elsewhere. They were brought back 
to their normal condition at the sound of taps 
with a suddenness which was really wonderful. 

The next morning we chased a party of rebels 
in a boat across the James and captured one who 
proved to be a spy of some notoriety. He was 
sent to Washington and held in confinement. 

Our camp was outside the fort at Yorktown. 
One day there was such a rattling of shots inside 
we thought the fort was attacked by a large body. 

It proved to be a frolic of the Regiment. 

Magruder, when he evacuated, left in magazines 
a considerable quantity of ammunition. The sol- 
diers brought it out, piled it in heaps, built bonfires 
around the heaps, and were having a regular 
"Fourth of July" jubilee. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE FAMOUS "SEVEN DAYS' FIGHT." RETREAT OF 
THE ARMY TO MALVERN HILLS. PRESIDENT 
LINCOLN VISITS MCCLELLAN — TELLS A CHAR- 
ACTERISTIC STORY. 

About the middle of May our squadron, Com- 
panies "F" and "H," was ordered up the Penin- 
sula to the Chickahominy to picket the railroad 
which carried supplies for McClellan's Army 
from White House to Savage Station. It was 
the old story of locking the stable after the horse 
was stolen. Stewart, commanding Lee's Cavalry, 
had made a raid around the Union Army, had 
destroyed a quantity of stores, and cut the rail- 
road by which the army was supplied. 

While on this picket duty the officers had a 
hard time to get enough to eat. The enlisted 
men had their rations issued to them, but the 
officers could not draw rations. They had to buy 
their supplies and there was no commissary in 
reach from whom we could buy. We bought some 
from the inhabitants. When they wouldn't sell 
we "borrowed." I have a vivid recollection of 

54 



The Seven Days' Fight 55 

sitting up one night till past midnight trying to 
cook a tough old guinea hen which I had shot 
with my revolver under the eyes of a farmer. 

In the latter part of May, more than two 
months after McClellan arrived on the Peninsula, 
his army was fading away in the Chickahominy 
swamps in front of Richmond. Many officers 
have claimed that McClellan could have taken 
Richmond any time during these two months. 
When Lee got good and ready he came out of 
Richmond and attacked our army at Beaver Dam. 
Our Companies were relieved from picketing the 
railroad and ordered to report to General Sum- 
ner on the fighting line. The famous "Seven 
Days' Fight" was on. 

We halted in a small piece of woods and were 
having coffee and hardtack when the enemy began 
shelling the woods, and a piece of shrapnel struck 
the tin plate from which I was eating. On leav- 
ing these woods I saw a wounded man, while being 
borne off on a stretcher, carried away from be- 
tween two stretcher bearers by a shell. The 
stretcher bearers were apparently unhurt. 

Sumner was falling back and our Squadron was 
ordered to support a battery on the right of his 
line. I was mounted on a thoroughbred Kentucky 
mare, which I purchased in York, Pennsylvania. 
As the enemy came forward to attack, and our 
guns opened fire, I expected the mare would take 



56 Life in Tent and Field 

fright but she showed no more excitement than 
if she had been brought up with batteries. 

Later the same day on the right of Sumner's 
line we repelled a small flanking force of the 
enemy. Men and horses suffered from the intense 
heat and from lack of water. The only water to 
be had was from mudholes from which men and 
horses drank together. 

Sumner's Corps continued to fall back toward 
Savage Station with our Squadron in the rear. 
Savage Station is on the Richmond and York 
River Railroad, which was the main artery of 
supply for our Army in front of Richmond. As 
we crossed the railroad several locomotives were 
blown up and a pile of hardtack as large as a 
meeting-house, and other stores, were on fire. 
Here was also a large camp of hospital tents con- 
taining twenty-five hundred sick and wounded, all 
of whom fell into the hands of the Confederates. 
These tents were left standing under care of the 
surgeons. One of the surgeons was from the 
Sixth New York, and he afterward told me that 
he was well treated, and after the tents and sick 
were removed to Richmond, he was permitted to 
return to our lines. 

The battle of Savage Station, fought by Sumner 
the afternoon of the twenty-eighth, considering 
the number of men engaged, was one of the 
bloodiest of the whole war. About four thousand 



We Crossed the Chickahominy 57 

of the enemy and three thousand of our troops 
were killed or wounded. The fight continued until 
after dark. 

During the night Sumner's Corps followed the 
rest of the Army to Meadow Bridges. Our squad- 
ron, Companies "F" and "H," acted as rear guard 
and were engaged all night in hurrying forward 
the exhausted soldiers who had fallen asleep by 
the roadside. I saw one man carrying a heavy 
load of canteens of water, and when I inquired 
to what command he belonged, and told him his 
Regiment was quite a distance in advance and 
to empty his canteens, he said the Captain had sent 
him for water and the men were perishing from 
thirst, and he would carry them till he dropped. 

When we crossed the Chickahominy bridge the 
enemy were shelling our troops. We reported to 
General Sumner, who sent me to General Rich- 
ardson, one of his Division Commanders, with 
orders for him to destroy the bridge as quickly as 
possible. I found a man in his shirt sleeves super- 
intending some soldiers who were tearing up the 
bridge under fire. I inquired of him for General 
Richardson, and he replied, "I am General 
Richardson." I gave him General Sumner's 
orders, and he said, "Tell Sumner the bridge is 
destroyed." 

Sumner held his position all day against heavy^ 
odds. The enemy's shells came from three direc- 



58 Life in Tent and Field 

tions but at no point did our troops give way. 
During this fight our squadron was most of the 
day in action. The night following we retreated 
to Malvern Hills. 

I nodded on my horse, and at every nod had a 
distinctive dream. A line was formed with the 
left resting on the James River. Stretching away 
from the river was a continual park of artillery 
covering the open ground on the slope of a gentle 
hill. It looked to me to be the best defensive 
position I had seen. When the enemy's troops 
were first seen coming across the open space one 
hundred guns opened fire and compelled them to 
get back, and although they repeatedly renewed 
the attack were driven back again and again. Not 
at any point did they succeed in breaking our lines. 

For two days and two nights I had been with- 
out food, except a little hardtack given me by one 
of our men out of his haversack. I went aboard 
a schooner and asked for something to eat. The 
Captain of the vessel gave me a seat at his dinner 
table but I had been so long without food I was 
unable to eat. 

Some of our gunboats were in the river throw- 
ing shells at the enemy. McClellan, I understood, 
was on one of the gunboats. The Malvern Hills 
fight was the expiring effort of the enemy. They 
had lifted the siege of Richmond, but at a tre- 
mendous cost. That night we fell back to Harri- 



Lincoln Visits McClellan 59 

son Landing. I lay down with my bridle rein 
attached to my foot, in a field of standing wheat. 
When I awoke after daylight a man was trying 
to steal my horse. As may be imagined, he did 
not get away without vigorous remonstrance being 
applied to his rear. Every spear of wheat was 
trampled down — everything was confusion. 
Thousands of men were roaming about inquiring 
for their brigades and regiments. About ten 
o'clock there was a single gun throwing an occa- 
sional shell among our men. By order of General 
Richardson, Company "F" went out and brought 
the gun in. 

President Lincoln visited McClellan at Harri- 
son Landing and, at a dinner in McClellan's tent, 
told one of his characteristic stories, somewhat 
broad, of a fight between two men in Illinois, 
illustrating in a very pat way the severe fight in 
which both sides were chewed up and exhausted. 
This story was given me the next day by Johnny 
Marshall, who was at the dinner. 

From Harrison Landing the Army was re- 
moved by transports to Alexandria. One Squad- 
ron of the Sixth New York Cavalry, consisting 
of Companies "D" and "K," accompanied them 
and joined the eight Companies whom we had left 
at Camp Scott. The other Squadron, Companies 
"F" and "H," had been, after Malvern Hill, sent 
to Yorktown to report to General E. D. Keyes. 



6o Life in Tent and Field 

Keyes, like General Scott, was an officer of the 
regular army, too old for service in the field, and 
for this reason was given the post at Yorktown. 
Keyes detached Captain Hannahs from his Com- 
pany to serve on his staff. Lieutenant Crozier 
and I were left in joint command of Company 



CHAPTER VIII 

'LEASANT LIFE ON THE PENINSULA. CONFED- 
ERATES ROUT THE FIFTH PENNSYLVANIA 
CAVALRY. WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE 
BURNED. CAPTAIN HANNAHS ASSASSINATED 
IN WILLIAMSBURG. 

I remained at Yorktown and vicinity until April, 
[863. I have, but for the death of my friend, 
I!aptain Hannahs, only very pleasant recollection 
)f my life on the Peninsula. 

I picked up on the battlefield at Williamsburg, 
I shotgun, and obtained from Baltimore a supply 
)f bird shot. I took with me one day my colored 
lervant and crossed the Peninsula to the Warwick 
River, where a negro lived who was accustomed 
:o act as guide to sportsmen from Richmond in 
)eace times, and who was an expert in gunning 
"or wild turkey, quail, and that most delicious of 
)irds, sora. The sora feed on wild rice, and when 
:his is in seed and an extra high tide occurs in 
he Warwick River, it drives the birds to the tops 
)f the rice which are out of water, and a boat 
jushed through the rice causes them to rise in 

6i 



62 Life in Tent and Field 

clouds. 1 was fortunate in having selected the 
right day and returned to camp at Yorktown with 
nearly a bushel of game, including sora, quail, 
gray squirrels and wild ducks. 

Oysters and fish were to be had in abundance. 
Fresh eggs and chickens could be bought from 
negroes living within a radius of a few miles, so 
that with plenty of food, a delightful climate, and 
the most salubrious of domiciles, wall tents, our 
life on the Peninsula in the vicinity of Yorktown 
was not the hardship which is generally supposed 
to be a soldier's lot. Our duties were light, con- 
sisting mostly of picketing the Peninsula from 
the York to the James River. This duty had been 
performed by the Fifth Pennsylvania Cavalry, 
who were stationed about a mile east of Wil- 
liamsburg near Fort Magruder to protect York- 
town from surprise. 

Williamsburg is a small village twelve miles 
west of Yorktown, known to the world as the 
seat of William and Mary College, the oldest col- 
lege in America, next to Harvard. It was char- 
tered in 1693 ^i^d numbers among its graduates 
such men as Peyton Randolph, Edmund Ran- 
dolph, John Marshall, Thomas Jefferson, James 
Monroe, John Randolph, John Tyler and Win- 
field Scott. The road from Richmond to Fortress 
Monroe, the principal thoroughfare of the Penin- 
sula, runs through Williamsburg and Yorktown. 



Captain Hannahs Assassinated 63 

At dawn on the morning of September 9, 1862, 
an attack was made on the Fifth Pennsylvania 
Cavalry, and that Regiment scattered in confusion 
over the Peninsula as far as Yorktown. Captain 
Hannahs was ordered by General Keyes to take 
the Squadron of the Sixth New York, collect the 
scattered men of the Fifth Pennsylvania, lead 
them back to their old position, and reform their 
picket line. Later in the day I was sent by Gen- 
eral Keyes to follow Captain Hannahs, to ascer- 
tain the state of affairs, and to return and report 
to him. I arrived in Williamsburg in the after- 
noon. As I passed the college I saw the smoking 
ruins — only some parts of the walls were left. 

I found Captain Hannahs mortally wounded, 
lying on a bed in a small house, unable to speak. 
He had been shot from above, the ball entering 
his neck and passing down through the lung on 
the other side. A constant hemorrhage prevented 
his uttering the words which spoke in his eyes. 
Captain Hannahs was the dearest friend I ever 
had outside my immediate family. We were tent 
mates and constant companions, sharing what- 
ever good things came to either. He had a fine 
literary taste and we spent our evenings some- 
times till late reading to each other. Our souls 
svere knit together like those of Saul and Jonathan. 
The lady of the house in which he died was 
very kind. She said she had a son in the Con- 



64 Life in Tent and Field 

federate Army and hoped If any evil befell him 
someone would be kind to him. 

I stayed with Captain Hannahs as long as I 
dared, into the evening, and then rode back to 
Yorktown, twelve miles, over a Virginia road. A 
little east of Fort Magruder I saw a dark object 
beside the road, and dismounted to find a man 
stiff and cold. I thought then that he was one of 
our pickets ambushed on his post, and I did not 
wait long. On reaching Yorktown I made my 
report to General Keyes and obtained permission 
to return to Williamsburg and remain until I 
could bring Captain Hannahs' body away. I got 
back after midnight (twelve miles each way) and 
found Hannahs living but unconscious. He died 
in my arms about an hour after my return. 

The following day was Sunday. There was 
not a coffin in the town, and I waited a day to have 
one made. The delay gave me opportunity to 
learn about the murder of Captain Hannahs, the 
attack on the morning of the ninth on the Sixth 
Pennsylvania Cavalry, and the destruction of the 
college building. 

Captain Hannahs, after establishing a new 
picket line, stopped at a little restaurant kept by 
a colored man, and left his horse In charge of a 
negro boy. Some man took the horse from the 
boy and mounted, and when Captain Hannahs 
rushed out and seized the reins, shot him with a 



Assassin Unknown 65 

revolver. One or two of the inhabitants of Wil- 
liamsburg saw the shooting and claimed it was 
done by a man in Federal uniform. A man of the 
Fifth Pennsylvania Cavalry was arrested and held 
for some time, and finally discharged for want of 
identification and lack of evidence. The murderer 
may or may not have been a Federal soldier. 

General Keyes sent an ambulance from York- 
town for Captain Hannahs, and sent his body, his 
orderly and horse, under my charge, to his home 
in Brooklyn, where he was buried with military 
honors. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE DESTRUCTION OF WILLIAM AND MARY COL- 
LEGE NOT DONE BY UNION SOLDIERS. 

William and Mary College was closed at the 
beginning of the Civil War and not reopened until 
after the war was over. Since then its students 
have been taught to believe that the fire which de- 
stroyed the main college building, September 9, 
1862, was willfully set by Northern soldiers and 
due to Northern vandalism. This has had a 
potent influence in keeping alive a feeling of ani- 
mosity toward the North in Virginia, through the 
influence of its graduates of nearly half a cen- 
tury. An account of the affair is given at some 
length in the History of William and Mary Col- 
lege, published by J. W. Randolph & English, 
1318 Main Street, Richmond, 1874, including the 
general catalogue from its foundation in i860 to 
1874. In various issues of the College Quarterly,, 
and in communications to the public press, it is 
assumed that the fire was the willful act of North- 
ern soldiers, as though there were no question of 
the fact. I think it can be shown that the fire was 

66 



Some Curious Affidavits 67 

the result of carelessness or accident on the part 
of Confederate soldiers, and believe that the col- 
lege authorities, as a matter of right, should cor- 
rect the wrong impression, created in an endeavor 
to get money from the nation to replace the col- 
lege building. 

In 1876 a bill was introduced in the Congress 
of the United States, praying for "indemnity" for 
the destruction of the main building of William 
and Mary College by Federal troops in 1862. 
Congress could not make an appropriation in aid 
of a private institution, and so the nation was 
asked to "indemnify" the college. In support of 
the bill for indemnity two affidavits were fur- 
nished. That they were regarded by the Con- 
gressional Committee to which the bill was re- 
ferred, as very frail evidence, would appear from 
the fact that the bill was introduced in 1876 and 
not passed until 1894. The affidavits which fol- 
low were taken many years after the close of the 
war. 

Extract from the "History of the College of 
William and Mary (including the General Cata- 
logue), from its Foundation, i860 to 1874." 

Deposition of Mrs. Maria T. Peyton and Miss 
Mary T. Southall, both of Williamsburg, in rela- 
tion to the destruction of the College in Septem- 
ber, 1862, taken before R. M. Garrett, magis- 
trate of the town : 



68 Life in Tent and Field 

Miss Southall deposes: "That she resided at 
the time on the College grounds at the President's 
house, and that she was alarmed on the evening 
of the 8th of September by the cry of fire. She 
went out and found that the College building was 
on fire, that soon a crowd gathered and extin- 
guished the flames; and that while carrying a 
bucket of water she met three United States sol- 
diers; one of them told her if the College was not 
burned that day it would be the next, or words 
to that effect; that early the next day a detach- 
ment of the Southern Cavalry entered and after 
a short contest retired, the last one leaving by 
ten minutes after ten o'clock A. M. ; that shortly 
afterward the college yard was crowded with 
United States soldiers, many of them drunk and 
boisterous; that she and her sisters were advised, 
so unruly were they, to leave the premises, which 
they did; that about five o'clock P. M. she was told 
of the College being on fire and advised to return 
as the house in which she lived was in great dan- 
ger. This she did, and soon after the college 
was a smoking ruin; and that there is no doubt 
of the destruction having been designedly effected 
by drunken United States soldiers." 

Mrs. Maria T. Peyton deposes essentially to 
the same facts respectmg the fire on the ninth of 
September, resulting in the burning down of the 
building; and further deposes that she went to 
Lieutenant Colonel Smith, who, by the capture of 
Colonel Campbell, became the commandant of 
the Post and the Regiment which was its garrison, 
the Fifth Pennsylvania Cavalry, and told him 
there was a rumor the town was to be fired. He, 



Did Yankees Destroy the College? 69 

replied, "No such orders had been or would be 
given." A short time after, the affiant saw the 
college on fire, and immediately said to Colonel 
Smith, "See, sir, the destruction has begun." He 
replied that it had but that it would be now im- 
possible to save the building for want of buckets. 
He said farther he had a set of drunken soldiers, 
and that it would take two sober men to control 
one drunken one. The affiant turned again to 
Colonel Smith and said, "Do, sir, try and save 
William and Mary College, for it will be a stigma 
on the page of history if you suffer it to be lost." 
He replied, "I have no means of putting out the 
fire; it cannot now be saved." The affiant dis- 
tinctly understood from Colonel Smith that no 
order had been given to burn the College, but 
that It was done by drunken soldiers whom he 
could not control." 

These ladles would have been very remarkable 
if they could have given even after a few hours, 
an accurate account of what happened in a time 
of such intense excitement. The affidavits were 
drawn with the express purpose of getting an 
indemnity from Congress, and that Miss Southall 
was aware of this is evident from her last sen- 
tence, "There is no doubt of the destruction hav- 
ing been designedly effected by drunken United 
States soldiers." This is not evidence. Let us 
see if it is a fair conclusion from what she swears 
to. 

She swears that on the evening of the eighth 



70 Life in Tent and Field 

(the day before the destruction) the college build- 
ing was on fire — [this is not corroborated by any- 
one else] that she met three United States sol- 
diers; one of them told her if the College was not 
burned that day it would be the next. As a Con- 
federate force came into Williamsburg that night 
and occupied the College, it is not reasonable to 
suppose that United States troops would be on the 
College grounds, nor does the remark attributed 
to the soldiers sound at all probable. 

She swears that early the next day a detach- 
ment of Southern Cavalry entered, and after a 
short contest retired, the last of them leaving by 
ten minutes after ten o'clock A. M. It is possible 
Miss Southall did not know that the Southern 
Cavalry entered the town the evening of the, 
eighth and occupied the college grounds. I was 
told in Williamsburg of their entry that night, 
and it appeared to be generally known. The 
"History of the College of William and Mary" 
(page 60) says that after the beginning of the 
war in 1861 the college was seized by the (South- 
ern) military and used as a barrack. What more 
probable than that they should go into their old 
barrack on the college ground, where they could 
lie concealed and make ready for their early 
attack. 

The camp of the Fifth Pennsylvania Cavalry 
was a mile to the east of Williamsburg toward 



What Miss Southall Saw in the College Yard 71 

Yorktown. The Southern Cavalry attacked be- 
fore it was fairly light, and took many prisoners 
and scattered the rest of the Regiment several 
miles farther east. The inference would be 
from Miss Southall's testimony that the contest 
occurred in Williamsburg instead of more than 
a mile away. Why is she so accurate in regard 
to the time of the Confederates leaving, "ten min- 
utes after ten o'clock A. M." ? Because the person 
who prepared the affidavit knew that the college 
building was on fire before noon of that day, and 
wanted to show that the Southern troops got away 
before the fire occurred. 

She swears that "shortly afterwards the col- 
lege yard was crowded with United States sol- 
diers, many of them drunk and boisterous." As 
all the United States soldiers, except those who 
were taken prisoners, were driven several miles 
to the eastward it was impossible for any of them 
to be in Williamsburg at that time. What Miss 
Southall saw in the college yard were prisoners 
that General Shingler, the Confederate officer, 
brought in. The crowd of soldiers. Federal and 
Confederate, would appear to her very boisterous 
and she would not care to get very near them. 
Miss Southall doubtless intended to swear to the 
truth as far as her recollection of events, which 
must have been very confused, served her. The 
affidavit for her signature was skillfully drawn 



72 Life in Tent and Field 

with the sole object of getting an appropriation 
from Congress. 

Mrs. Maria T. Peyton's deposition must be 
the product of a dream. She says she went to 
Colonel Smith and told him there was a rumor 
the town was to be fired, and a short time after 
saw the college on fire and appealed to him to 
save the college, saying, "Do, sir, try and save 
William and Mary College for it will be a stigma 
on the page of history if you suffer it to be lost." 
At the time she made this pathetic appeal and 
saw the college building on fire, Colonel Smith 
and his regiment were several miles away toward 
Yorktown, and not an officer or man of the Fifth 
Pennsylvania, except those who had been taken 
prisoners, could have been in or near Williams- 
burg. If Mrs. Peyton did not dream it, she cer-^ 
tainly drew on a vivid imagination. 

The facts of the case are as follows : — 

1st. The detachment of Southern Cavalry oc- 
cupied the college the night of the eighth and 
morning of the ninth of June, 1862. At dawn 
the morning of the ninth they surprised the Fifth 
Pennsylvania Cavalry at Fort Magruder, a mile 
distant from Williamsburg, and drove them away 
from Williamsburg toward Yorktown, taking 
many prisoners. 

2d. The fire must have started about the time 
the Southern troops left, as when I passed the 



Fire Result of Accident 73 

building the afternoon of the ninth it was entirely 
consumed. 

3d. I was in Williamsburg two days. While 
there I saw no soldiers of the Fifth Pennsylvania, 
nor of any other United States Regiment. 

4th. It was generally believed in Williams- 
burg when I was there that the fire was the result 
of carelessness on the part of the Southern troops. 

5th. That there were only two affidavits, and 
those so improbable, to support a claim for "in- 
demnity," shows that the inhabitants of Williams- 
burg at the time of the fire did not believe it was 
caused by Federal soldiers. 

The statement by Mr. J. L. Slater, published 
in the William and Mary College Quarterly in 
January, 1903, has little importance as bearing 
on the destruction of the building. 

From William and Mary College Quarterly, 
January, 1903. 

The following statement was made by the late 
Mr. J. L. Slater, of Williamsburg, in 1895 : 

"I was ten years old in 1862. I remember dis- 
tinctly the day the Federal troops burned the Col- 
lege. In the morning General Shingler, at the 
head of some Confederates, drove in the Federal 
pickets, and Colonel Campbell, who commanded 
the Federals formed a line of battle at Fort 
Magruder. Shingler formed his line and charged 
the Federals, who broke and fled to Yorktown. 



74 Life in Tent and Field 

I remember Shingler returned with so many Fed- 
erals, including Campbell himself, that we all 
thought that the Federals had come back bringing 
Shingler and his men captive. The Confederates 
left the town early the same day, and the Fifth 
Pennsylvania Cavalry, reinforced by the Sixth 
New York, encamped near the College. One of 
the officers came down town to an eating place 
near my mother's residence. A soldier, seemingly 
intoxicated, rode up and asked the boy who was 
holding a horse whose horse that was. He re- 
plied, 'Captain Henniss,' I think. The soldier, 
with an oath, ordered the boy to call the Captain 
out. The Captain came out and the soldier or- 
dered him to mount. He refused, when the sol- 
dier drew his pistol and shot him. I saw the whole 
thing. The wounded officer was carried into my 
mother's house. While he lay in bed the soldier 
came in again and drew a pistol on him and said, 
'D — n you, you shot my horse, and I will shoot 
you in bed,' He was put out by some soldiers. 
The Captain said he was not one of his men, the 
Sixth New York, but the Fifth Pennsylvania. 
Next morning about daybreak the Captain died in 
my mother's arms. The troops of the Fifth 
Pennsylvania threatened me if I told on their 
comrade, and though the soldier was arrested 
nothing could be proved on him. 

"Later in the evening I was at the College gate 
searching, at the Captain's request, for the Cap- 
tain's First Lieutenant, when I saw the College 
on fire. Going home, I met one of the Fifth 
Pennsylvania Cavalry, who was cursing and say- 



Death of Captain Hannahs 75 

ing, 'I burned that d — d College, and I intend 
to burn this d — d town.' I was young then, but I 
remember these events vividly. 

"J. L. Slater." 

There are errors in this affidavit of Mr. Slater, 
as might be expected. In evidence taken at the 
time, a citizen of Williamsburg who lived opposite 
Mrs. Slater, testified that he saw the affair, that a 
man took Captain Hannahs' horse from the negro 
boy who was holding him, and started to ride 
away, when Captain Hannahs came out and seized 
the bridle. The man drew a pistol from Captain 
Hannahs' holster and shot him. The location and 
direction of the wound confirm this man's story. 
Others in Williamsburg told me the same story. 

When I reached Captain Hannahs he could not 
utter a sound. He was shot from above through 
the lungs, the ball going down from the neck 
through the left lung into the right lung. The 
blood welled up into his throat so as to prevent 
his speaking. 

If, when he was first taken into the boy's 
mother's house, before my arrival, he could speak 
and ask the boy to find his lieutenant, it must have 
been near noon, and the boy saw the fire then 
for the first time. This is confirmation of the 
fact that the College was on fire before any Fed- 
eral troops got into the town. 



76 Life in Tent and Field 

It is to be hoped that Southern chivalry and 
regard for the truth will lead to the correction 
of the history of the College In regard to the 
fire, and at least give the North the benefit of 
the doubt. 



CHAPTER X 

AUTHOR PROMOTED TO FIRST LIEUTENANT. GEN- 
ERAL BURNSIDE AND BATTLE OF FREDERICKS- 
BURG. LAYING OF PONTOON BRIDGE. HORSE- 
BACK RIDE WITH A VIRGINIA GIRL. A 
MALODOROUS STORY. 

I learned indirectly, soon after my return to 
Yorktown in June, 1878, of my promotion, by 
Governor Morgan, to First Lieutenant. The offi- 
cial notice reached me in November with orders 
to report to Captain Heermance, commanding 
Company "C," Sixth New York Cavalry, then 
at Falmouth, Virginia. I reached Washington by 
boat and at once proceeded by horseback to Fal- 
mouth. The roads were in horrible condition and 
I was pretty tired when I got to the Regimental 
Camp at Falmouth. The Regiment was all out 
on picket. Captain Heermance had a tent up with 
a little stove in it, the pipe going out through the 
canvas in the back of the tent. He also had for 
a bed a large box in which rifles had been shipped. 
It was about six feet long and two feet wide, and 
in it were one or two blankets. All this looked 

77 



78 Life in Tent and Field 

very luxurious to me. I was not deterred by the 
bed's resemblance to a coffin, but after a supper 
of coffee and hardtack was soon sound asleep in 
it. I was awakened in the morning rather sud- 
denly by a bucket of cold water thrown over me. 
My servant had started a fire in the stove and 
the hot pipe had set the back part of the tent on 
fire. He tried to extinguish it with a bucket of 
water, most of which landed on me. 

My disappointment at being without a comfort- 
able tent was not comparable to Heermance's on 
his return from picket that night, wet, tired, and 
covered with mud. His reception of his new Lieu- 
tenant was not as cordial as it might have been.. 
His language was the only warm thing about it. 
We, however, patched up the tent as well as possi- 
ble and continued to use it on our return from 
picket duty along the Rappahannock. 

Before I left Yorktown President Lincoln's 
long-suffering patience was exhausted, and he had 
relieved McClellan from command of the Army 
of the Potomac and had appointed General Burn- 
side to succeed him. 

General Ambrose Burnside, up to the time of 
his appointment to the command of the Army of 
the Potomac, had been with this Army only about 
two months, having previously gained reputation 
by a successful campaign in North Carolina. 

He was a man of fine character, pure patri- 



General Burnside 79 

otism, and undoubted ability. He selected the 
route for an advance on Richmond via Fred- 
ericksburg instead of that via Gordonsville which 
McClellan had intended. His plans were ap- 
proved at that time by the best military authori- 
ties and have not been condemned since by mili- 
tary critics. 

He could have occupied Fredericksburg with- 
out much opposition if the pontoons had been fur- 
nished at the time they were promised. The 
delay gave Lee time to perfect his defense. 

Burnside's direct attack on Fredericksburg as 
it turned out was a terrible mistake. He was in- 
fluenced to it by two considerations. One was 
the opposition and criticism of those West Point 
officers who were personal friends of McClellan. 
The other was the state of affairs at the North. 
The November election had just been held, and 
resulted in the election of a number of Copper- 
heads who condemned Lincoln's administration 
and all his appointments. 

Fredericksburg occupies a position on a high 
slope facing the Rappahannock, while between the 
city and the river is about half a mile of river flats. 
On the Falmouth side, where our army was lying, 
the bluffs rise abruptly from the river bank. We 
could see the enemy camps and the soldiers work- 
ing on the earthworks about Fredericksburg. 

Our Army was in a constant state of excitement, 



8o Life in Tent and Field 

expecting every day to make an attack. Rains 
were frequent, with cold weather and consider- 
able snow, and the mud was getting deeper and 
the roads getting worse, if any worse were 
possible. 

Our soldiers were imperfectly provided. They 
were largely without overcoats and blankets, and 
their shoes and uniforms were worn out by the 
hard labors of the summer. To add to their dis- 
comfort they were sometimes short of rations, 
which were plain enough at the best, consisting 
of meat, hardtack, beans or rice, and coffee — no 
luxuries. However, they were not the kind to 
complain. They did resent the criticisms of the 
Northern papers, which accused the Army of 
living in luxurious idleness. 

On the evening of December tenth, orders were 
given to the Army to make preparation to move. 
Early the next morning it was all in motion. Soon 
after day the Engineer Corps began to lay pon- 
toons. With other officers, I sat on the high 
bank overlooking the river, and witnessed a scene 
of the most intense interest. From the high 
ground on our side, one hundred and fifty cannon 
were throwing shells into Fredericksburg and the 
enemy's earthworks, while the shells from the 
enemy's guns were bursting among our batteries. 

On the river flats opposite us the enemy had a 
line of rifle pits. They were, as I remember them, 



How Pontoons Are Laid 8i 

about twelve feet long, three feet wide, and five 
feet deep. Each one contained from three to five 
men. On our side, lying prone on the ground, 
were Berdan's sharpshooters ready to pick off any 
man who exposed himself in the rifle pits. 

The pontoons arrived each one on a wagon 
drawn by six horses. Riding in each boat were 
an officer and several men. The first two boats 
to arrive were in the water in a few seconds filled 
with men lying in the bottom, and started from 
shore, while an officer stood up and directed their 
course. They continued under fire from the rifle 
pits, to the other side of the river. When they 
reached the opposite bank the men who were in 
the bottom sprang up with fixed bayonets and 
rushed toward the rifle pits. I saw two or three 
men fall. The sharpshooters and artillery on our 
side made it almost sure death for the men in 
the pits to expose themselves. 

While the two boats were crossing, the pontoon 
bridge began to go down, and was laid and ready 
for use in an incredibly short time. Six or seven 
men took a boat from a wagon and slid it into the 
river. These men then took their places in the 
boat — two at the oars, and the other four, two at 
the bow and two at the stern, to drop the anchors 
the minute the boat was in its proper place. When 
distant from the shore the length of the string- 
pieces on which the floor of the bridge was to 



82 Life in Tent and Field 

rest, it was swung parallel with the stream and 
anchored with two anchors at each end. At the 
same time another was passing, and another and 
another, and all the same distance apart. String- 
pieces were held up, one end resting on the shore 
and dropped onto the first boat. While they were 
being fastened others were dropped from the first 
to the second boat, others from the second on 
to the third, and so on. All the time other men 
were bringing the floor planks and putting them 
in place. 

It seemed that almost while one held his breath 
the bridge was laid, and the infantry in column 
of fours, rifles at shoulder, were crossing and 
forming on the other side. Soon thousands of 
men were marching steadily in line across the river 
flats toward the heights of Fredericksburg. The 
men in the rifle pits had surrendered and were sent 
to our side of the river. 

As our troops approached the enemy's entrench- 
ments we could see them drop, then waver, and 
when near the entrenchments break in confusion. 
Sixteen thousand men on our side, and half that 
number on the other side, fell at the battle of 
Fredericksburg. In January following. General 
Burnside was relieved from command, and Gen- 
eral Hooker appointed to succeed him. 

The winter was very severe, with frequent 
snows and rains. The cavalry had little chance 



Picket Duty 83 

to make themselves comfortable as they were em- 
ployed on picket duty and moved from place to 

place. 

February 23, we were ordered to a place near 
Acquia Creek. The snow was a foot deep. Be- 
fore we had time to form a camp we were ordered 
out, on a rumor that J. E. B. Stuart, the rebel 
Cavalry General, was making a raid around our 
Army. The Regiment moved to a place called 
Ebenezer Church, where we remained in line all 
night. At daybreak in the morning we started 
to find Stuart but failed to overtake him. 

That night I was detailed in charge of a picket 
where three roads met. It rained heavily and 
was so dark I could not see to find my pickets. I 
stood beside my horse all night in a pouring rain, 
without moving out of my tracks. In the morn- 
ing the regiment started to return, and had gone 
two or three miles before my picket was relieved. 
We returned to camp on the twenty-seventh, hav- 
ing traveled seventy to eighty miles through swol- 
len streams and Virginia mud. During the two 
days and nights we were on the march I was wet 
through and absolutely without sleep and without 

food. ^^ J n 

Early in March following, I was detailed Com- 
missary of Subsistence to the Second Brigade of 
the First Cavalry Division. My duties were to 
keep my Regiment supplied with rations, that is, 



84 Life in Tent and Field 

with whatever the Subsistence Department fur- 
nished in the way of food. My first station was 
at Acquia Creek, where the three Regiments com- 
prising the Brigade, viz., the Sixth New York, the 
Eighth New York, and the Seventeenth Pennsyl- 
vania, came for their supplies. Here I remained 
about two months, till the battle of Chancellors- 
ville. While here I had a small, stern wheel^ 
steamboat to bring supplies from Alexandria up 
the creek. It had a flat bottom and drew so little 
water the boys used to say it could run anywhere 
over a heavy dew. 

A farmer lived near my camp, who drew a seine 
in the Potomac River and kept me supplied with 
fresh fish, in return for which I gave him empty 
barrels and boxes in which to ship his fish to 
Washington. He had a rather attractive looking 
daughter who was an expert horsewoman. We 
went for a ride together one day, she mounted on 
my thoroughbred mare, and I on a powerful sorrel 
horse. In crossing a wide field we encountered 
one of those Virginia ditches in which the 4irt 
from the ditch is thrown up on one side and a 
hedge grown on it. To cross it a horse has to 
clear both ditch and hedge. Her mare cleared it, 
but my horse balked and I could not force him to 
try it, and had to ride nearly a mile around to 
join my companion. 

I recall a rather amusing incident at Acquia 



A Lucky Escape 85 

Creek. The commissary tent, from which stores 
were issued, was near that in which I slept. I 
heard some lively rattling of boxes and barrels one 
morning in the commissary tent, and rushed in to 
see what was going on. Just as I stepped inside 
a little striped black and white animal ran past 
my feet. I stooped quickly and picked him up 
and dropped him into an empty barrel. An odor 
which I luckily escaped told me what the animal 
was. We dropped the barrel into the water and 
let it float out a ways, when a shot from my re- 
volver ended the little fellow's career. 



CHAPTER XI 

fight of the sixth new york cavalry at j 
todd's tavern, hooker's plans for the 

DESTRUCTION OF LEE's ARMY. GENERAL ' 

devin orders keenan's charge which 
saved the army from destruction. he 

SAYS NOTHING ABOUT THE "nOBLE SMILE." 
STONEWALL JACKSON KILLED. 

The latter part of April I followed my Brigade 
to Falmouth and crossed the Rappahannock with 
General Devin as a member of his staff. Most of 
the Cavalry (about eight thousand) had gone | 
with General Stoneman to cut the enemy's line of 
supply South of Fredericksburg. The Second 
Brigade (Devin's) were the only mounted troops 
left. 

Seven Companies of the Sixth New York, under 
Lieutenant Colonel McVicar, were attached to 
and furnished orderlies to General Slocum com- 
manding the Twelfth Corps. 

McVicar was a Scotchman and, as I am in- 
formed, had been at one time a gunner's mate in 
the British Army. He lived some time In Canada. 

86 



How Troops Were Officered 87 

At the outbreak of the Civil War he was living 
in Rochester, N. Y., and was employed by Fred 
Douglas in getting runaway slaves safe into Can- 
ada. Douglas was a protege of Horace Greeley, 
editor and founder of the New York Tribune. 
Through Douglas' influence with Greeley, Gov- 
ernor Seymour of New York appointed McVicar 
Lieutenant Colonel of the Sixth Regiment New 
York Cavalry, This is a fair illustration of the 
way in which the Army was officereci. Perhaps it 
was the best that could be done at that time, but 
it took many months to make good officers out of 
raw material and to rid the Army of the incapable. 

McVicar was anxious to do something and be- 
sieged General Slocum to give him a chance. He 
was finally sent on a reconnoissance towards Spott- 
sylvania Court House. McVicar asked Slocum 
how far he should go, and the General told him to 
go until he met the enemy. Slocum, like most of 
the Generals in the Army of the Potomac, thought 
the Cavalry of little account except to furnish 
mounted orderlies for the Infantry generals. 
McVicar started without any definite idea of 
where he was going or what he was going to do. 

Toward night, when he had gone several miles, 
Stuart's Confederate Cavalry were on the road 
behind, unaware of the Federal force ahead. The 
Sixth New York Regiment formed in an open 
space facing the enemy, and when they were within 



88 Life in Tent and Field 

hailing distance the bugle sounded the charge. 
McVicar, at the first fire, was shot through the 
head. He was doubtless a brave man. Other 
qualities besides bravery are, however, essential 
to a successful commander. 

In the darkness of the woods many of the men 
broke through and got back. Many individual 
encounters occurred that night to be told at the 
meetings of the G. A. R., as the years rolled on. 
Lieutenant Bell is said to have run a Confederate 
through the body with his saber. Captain Heer- 
mance struck a man across the face and broke his 
nose. Several years after, at a dinner in Kinder- 
hook, New York, a stranger sat next him at a 
table, who proved to be his quarry of that night, 
and Heermance took great delight in taking him 
about and relating the incident. 

This affair, which occurred near a place called 
Todd's Tavern, forms the principal part of a his- 
tory of the Sixth New York, prepared under the 
supervision of Lieutenant Easton acting Adjutant 
under McVicar. McVicar and Easton were both 
Scotch. McVicar was kUled April 30, 1863. 
Easton resigned and was mustered out three 
months later, viz., July 26, 1863. 

W^hen my Regiment had its encounter at Todd's 
Tavern I was with General Devin who had 
with him the Eighth and Seventeenth Pennsylvania 
Cavalry and a battery of horse artillery. We 



Lee's Good Fortune 89 

crossed the Rappahannock at United States Ford 
and proceeded to the right of our Army which 
had already taken position on the pike leading 
from Fredericksburg to Orange Court House. 
Hooker's plans were ably conceived and as ably 
executed up to a certain point. He had placed an 
Army of sixty thousand men in the rear of Lee's 
Army and the movement was executed without 
Lee's knowledge. Forty thousand men were left 
In Lee's front to make a demonstration and to 
follow him when he left his entrenchments. Eight 
thousand cavalry were between Lee and Rich- 
mond to cut off his supplies and line of retreat. 
Not a soldier In the whole army doubted that Lee 
was doomed to destruction and that the war was 
won. 

Which one of the gods fought for Lee and 
caused Hooker to turn back at the critical mo- 
ment and to relinqviish his grip, has never been 
satisfactorily explained to the public. If It had 
been another general some might have said It 
was lack of nerve, but no one has ever accused 
Hooker of lack of nerve. 

On the morning of May 3, Devin was ordered 
to take position at an angle of our line between the 
Third and Fourth Corps. On our way to this 
point I met Bob Fitzhugh, of my class, who was in 
command of a battery. He told us he had been 
watching a cloud of dust on our front, which was 



90 Life in Tent and Field 

evidently a large force proceeding toward our 
right flank. I asked him if Hooker had been ad- 
vised of this, and he said he had. 

Devin disposed of his little force at right angles 
to the plank road which leads from Fredericks- 
burg to Orange Court House, with the Eighth 
Pennsylvania on the right and the Seventeenth on 
the left, and the battery covering the road. 

The dust which Fitzhugh had seen was raised 
by the Confederate General Stonewall Jackson, 
who marched past our entire line and attacked our 
Eleventh Corps which had the right of the line. 
This Corps was composed of Germans, formerly 
commanded by Siegel, at that time by Howard. 
"We fights mit Siegel, we runs mit Howard" be- 
came a familiar byword. Jackson's sudden attack 
took Howard by surprise and his corps came tear- 
ing down the road and through the woods toward 
the Chancellorsville House, men, batteries and 
wagons in the utmost confusion. As the enemy 
came in pursuit, our little battery of four guns 
stopped their onrush. General Devin ordered 
Major Keenan, who was in command of the 
Eighth Pennsylvania, to charge. 

Keenan was known as one of the bravest offi- 
cers of the Brigade. He did not hesitate, but led 
his regiment in a charge, which for pluck and suc- 
cessful results was unsurpassed during the Civil 
War. Keenan and all his officers were killed, but 



Too Much Politics 91 

Stonewall's Corps was held in check long enough 
to enable our Twelfth Corps to change its align- 
ment and get its guns in position. 

"Into the jaws of death, 
Into the mouth of hell 
Rushed the four hundred." 

Devin ought to have got another star for his 
conduct in this affair, but at that time politics had 
too much to do with promotion. Devin's httle 
force, and the way it was handled, saved the Army 
of the Potomac from utter destruction. If any 
officer during the whole war earned promotion 
Devin did at that time, and should have been made 
a Major General, but the battle of Chancellors- 
ville was so disastrous that meritorious work of 
any officer, however commendable it might be, was 
overshadowed by the general disaster. Besides, 
officers higher up claimed the credit of Devin's 
achievement. 

In a history of the battle of Chancellorsville, by 
General Abner Doubleday, published by Scribner 
& Sons in 1890, he says, "There was but one way 
to delay Jackson, some force must be sacrificed, 
and Pleasanton ordered Major Peter Keenan, 
commanding the Eighth Pennsylvania Cavalry, to 
charge the ten thousand men in front with his four 
hundred. Keenan saw in a moment that if he 
threw his little force into that seething mass of 



92 Life in Tent and Field 

infantry, horses and men would go down on all 
sides, and few would be left to tell the tale. A 
sad smile lit up his noble countenance as he said, 
'General, I will do it.' Thus, at thirty-four years 
of age, he laid down his life, literally impaled on 
the bayonets of the enemy, saving the army from 
capture and his country from the unutterable deg- 
radation of slaveholding rule in the Northern 
States." 

If this isn't romancing, I don't know what it is. 
In the first place Pleasanton didn't know Keenan; 
second, if he had known him he wouldn't be guilty 
of such a breach of etiquette as to give orders di- 
rect to one of Devin's officers in Devin's presence; 
third, Pleasanton was not in that particular place 
at that time. Devin knew Keenan and knew that 
he would charge the devil himself and all his imps, 
if ordered to do so. 

Another author says, "Pleasanton, knowing 
that the Eleventh Corps were retreating in dis- 
order, rode forward with two Regiments of 
Cavalry at a gallop, and when he saw the situa- 
tion, called Major Keenan to him and directed him 
to charge. 'General, I will do it,' simply replied 
Major Keenan. It was nearly certain death. He 
knew it, but the honor of the duty assigned and 
the importance of the service to be done lighted 
up his features with a noble smile." Who invented 
that expression about the "noble smile"? Several 



The ''Noble Smile" 93 

authors use the same words, "General, I will do It, 
and a noble smile, etc." 

Devin placed Martin's battery, and Devin 
ordered Keenan's charge, but no one heard him 
say anything about the "noble smile." Devin had 
no political backing, no one in Washington to see 
that he had his dues. He did his duty and his su- 
perior officers of the Regular Army got the credit 
of his achievement. 

The fight continued till after dark. Jackson 
forced his way almost to the Chancellorsville 
House, when he was killed. We lost the battle 
and Lee lost his ablest General. 



CHAPTER XII 

INVASION OF MARYLAND. PURSUIT OF LEE. 
COLONEL JOHN S. MOSBY. GETTYSBURG. 

After Chancellorsville the Army had lost half 
its force, some by desertion, many whose term of 
service had expired, and more than all, the killed, 
wounded and missing at Fredericksburg and Chan- 
cellorsville. The Army itself had lost its morale. 
The Copperheads at the North were saying, "I 
told you so," and loyal citizens had the dumps. 
The President tried to encourage Hooker, and 
Hooker was discouraged. Lee himself was the 
only man who could set the North right again, and 
this he proceeded to do by an invasion of Mary- 
land, with Washington as an ultimate prize. The 
Southern Army had got what we would call 
"swelled heads," which is a fatal disease. The 
Germans "had it bad." "Whom the gods wish 
to destroy they first make mad." 

Lee had got a good start for Maryland through 
the Shenandoah Valley, when Hooker began pur- 
suit. Stuart's Cavalry guarded Lee's flank, and 
our Cavalry pursued with frequent skirmishes. 

94 



Hard Tack 95 

My Brigade had been enlarged by the addition of 
the Third Virginia, and I found a good deal of 
difficulty in keeping them supplied with rations. 

My regular course was, after issuing rations, to 
start with a wagon train for the nearest depot, 
draw five days' supplies of coffee, sugar, hardtack, 
salt and salt pork. As soon as the wagons were 
loaded 1 would start back to the Brigade. If they 
were on the march my business was to follow until 
I found them. On a few occasions I reached them 
at night sleeping on the ground. In a few minutes 
they were all awake and the camp was ringing 
with the cry of "Hardtack," "Hardtack." Each 
Company would send its Commissary Sergeant to 
the wagon train, where would be weighed out to 
him five days' rations for each enlisted man. The 
officers could get supplies only by paying a fixed 
price for each article. 

Each enlisted man received, for five days' ra- 
tions, three pounds, twelve ounces pork, eight 
ounces coffee, twelve ounces sugar, five pounds 
hardtack, and as much salt as needed. There 
were other articles which he could get if in camp, 
but which he could not use when on the march for 
want of means of cooking. A receipt was given 
by each Commissary Sergeant for the number of 
rations he received. S 

It usually took all night to finish the issue, and 
if we were in an exposed position we had to get 



g6 Life in Tent and Field 

away at once, as soon as the issue was finished. 
Sometimes the Commissary force would be two or 
three days and nights with little if any sleep. At 
times our train was pursued by enemy troops, but 
we were mostly fortunate in getting away. 

It was early in June when the Army of the 
Potomac started North after Lee. The weather 
was very hot, and sometimes men and animals 
were seen drinking together from the same spring. 
The route of the Cavalry through the Blue Ridge 
Mountains was full of picturesque situations. I 
always loved the mountains, and the beauty of the 
scenery is still impressed on my memory. Some of 
the Cavalry encounters were almost in the clouds. 

From a place in the mountains called Aldie, a 
wagon train under charge of Lieutenant J. B. 
Wheeler, Quartermaster, was sent to Alexandria 
for supplies. I rode to Alexandria the same day, 
drew five days' subsistence stores for my Brigade, 
and returned to camp in the evening. I was afraid 
of Mosby and rode so fast that when I got to 
Alexandria my horse was played out and I turned 
him in to the Quartermaster Department and se- 
lected another to carry me back. 

The new horse was a capable one but had lost 
his left eye. The next day I was riding with sev- 
eral officers. An officer opposite me called to 
me and offered to swap horses, and I accepted his 
challenge. We took off saddles and bridles, and 



A Guerilla 97 

when we came to mount, found we had made an 
even trade. My horse had his left eye shot away 
— his had lost his right eye. 

WHO WAS MOSBY? 

At the time of the invasion of Maryland no one 
had to be told "who was Mosby." His name was 
known to every one, North and South. When the 
Civil War began he had a law office in Bristol, 
Va. Whether he had any clients, no one knows, 
as he says nothing about clients in his Memoirs. 
In 1 86 1 he joined the Southern Army as a private, 
and during his first two years gained reputation 
as a scout. In 1863 he began his career as a par- 
tisan, or as he was generally called, a "guerrilla" in 
the mountainous region South of Washington, and 
until the close of the war operated with a small 
force in that country, against the railroads, sup- 
ply trains and outposts, so successfully that he 
became a terror to the authorities in Washington. 
He had under him a force of from fifty to one 
hundred and fifty young men who lived in the 
vicinity and were acquainted with the roads and 
recesses in the mountains, who liked adventure and 
who, each one, thought that but for himself the 
Confederacy would not amount to much. After 
a successful raid these young men retired to their 
homes in various localities where they were safe 



98 Life in Tent and Field 

from discovery, and waited until called to make 
an attack in some new direction. These attacks 
were always surprises and did not usually entail 
great danger. They were executed with a great 
deal of yelling and pistol firing — very seldom, if 
ever, on regularly organized troops. 

Mosby was not such a bad man as he was con- 
sidered in the North. He treated his prisoners 
often with courtesy. After the war he resided for 
many years in Washington, became a friend of 
General Grant and held some public office under 
the Government. 

Wheeler, on his return from Alexandria, was 
captured by one of Mosby's men and taken before 
Colonel Mosby. Wheeler, more than forty years 
later, wrote a chapter for a history of the Sixth 
New York Cavalry, and among other incidents 
told of his trip from Aldie to Alexandria and re- 
turn, but failed to mention his capture and release 
by Mosby. On the contrary he tells a curious 
story of how he captured one of Mosby's men. In 
relating the matter at the time he was somewhat 
reticent as to what passed between himself and 
Mosby. Colonel Mosby was a very inquisitive 
person, especially in regard to our forces — their 
number, location, etc., and doubtless asked 
Wheeler some embarrassing questions so that 
Wheeler, in after years, had forgotten whether 
he had captured another man or been captured. 



A Girls' School in Maryland 99 

After we crossed the Potomac into Maryland 
there was an entire change in our surroundings. 
It was like a warm, sunshiny day after a long spell 
of cloudy, disagreeable, nasty weather. Instead 
of barren, wasted fields and deserted houses, we 
found cultivated fields and the houses occupied by 
men, women and children, who greeted us with a 
smiling welcome. The soldiers were inspired with 
fresh courage and their spirits rose. 

One day Lieutenant Richardson, of the Sixth 
New York Cavalry was riding with me, as we 
passed a girls' seminary. The doors and windows 
were closed but we could see the girls' faces at the 
windows. Richardson was a graduate of Yale, 
had been a school-teacher, and was never abashed 
in the presence of women. He proposed that we 
go in and visit the school. We had a good deal of 
difficulty in gaining admission, but Richardson, 
with some finesse, finally gained access. 

The girls were assembled in a large school- 
room, where Richardson made an address. He 
told them of the privileges they enjoyed; of what 
we were doing to protect them from unscrupulous 
invaders; and what a pleasure it was to us, who 
had been only in the company of men, to see so 
many beautiful girls. He then turned and com- 
plimented the teachers. He was perhaps too pro- 
fuse in compliments, as the instructors seemed in 
doubt as to whether we were in joke or earnest. 



lOO Life in Tent and Field 

We were, however, dismissed with a good deal of 
courtesy. 

The battle of Gettysburg was fought July i, 2, 
and 3, 1863. Hooker was relieved from com- 
mand of the Army three days before the battle, 
and George E. Meade appointed in his place. I 
shall not attempt anything in regard to Gettys- 
burg, further than to say that I believe the ratio 
of the number of men killed and wounded to those 
engaged, surpassed anything known in the Euro- 
pean War. 

The supply train under my charge was halted 
five miles from the field of Gettysburg, awaiting 
orders. We could hear the continuous roll of 
musketry and booming of cannon. It was an in- 
tensely anxious time. We did not doubt the 
ability of the Army of the Potomac to handle 
Lee's Army, but the change of commanders from 
Hooker to Meade on the eve of battle was an 
element of some discouragement, and we could 
not help recalling Lincoln's oft-quoted saying, 
"It is no time to swap horses when crossing a 
stream." 

It was a great relief when we knew that Lee 
was in retreat and orders came on the evening of 
the third day for the supply train to follow the 
Cavalry on the road leading south from Freder- 
ick, Maryland. 



CHAPTER XIII 

PURSUIT OF LEE 

I issued rations the next day at a point about 
twelve miles from Frederick, and at once dis- 
patched the wagons back to Frederick for a fresh 
supply. In the evening I started to overtake the 
wagon train. It got quite dark and as I was rid- 
ing I was caught by the neck by a telegraph wire 
which was strung on low poles following Army 
Headquarters. But for the looseness of the wire, 
which gave way enough for me to pull up my 
horse, my neck would have been broken. I at 
once lay down, fastened my bridle rein to one 
foot, and slept till daybreak. I often slept in this 
way. My mare was as good as a sentry, and at 
the least danger would pull at my foot and wake 
me. In this way she saved me from captui*e on 
at least three occasions. Is It any wonder that we 
became attached to each other? 

Before it was fairly morning I passed my wagon 
train and rode on to Frederick. I had a lot of 
trouble getting into Frederick. Every little ways 
I was halted, compelled to dismount and advance 



luz i-.ije in I eni ana ritiu 

under cover of a musket to explain my business. 
It was the Seventh Regiment from New York who 
had been sent down to reinforce Meade's Army. 
It seemed to me at the time that they were more 
alarmed than necessary at a single harmless Com- 
missary of Subsistence. 

When I got back my Brigade was on picket, and 
I joined General Devin. That night General 
Devin, his Adjutant General Mahnken, another 
member of his staff, and I lay on the ground so 
near the enemy's picket that we could hear them 
talking. When the guard was changed I had 
fallen into a sound sleep, with the mare fastened, 
as usual, by her bridle strap to my foot. I was 
waked by her giving sharp jerks, and at once 
mounted and gave her her head. In about an 
eighth of a mile we overtook General Devin and 
staff. Mahnken explained that he had tried to 
find me but in the darkness was unable to do so. 
Mahnken was a German, which may possibly ex- 
plain "the milk in the cocoanut." 

The Army was flushed with victory and eager 
to attack Lee before he could recross the Potomac. 
It was generally believed that Lee's Army could 
have been destroyed at that time. He, however, 
had a strong position and an attack might have 
resulted adversely. The Government in Wash- 
ington felt that there was danger to the City, al- 
though President Lincoln is said to have expected 



Death of a Southern Lad 103 

and been anxious for an attack. Within a month 
Lee's Army was twice in position where it doubt- 
less could and would have been destroyed but for 
fatal delays. 

The route of the Cavalry in pursuit of Lee was 
nearly the same as when we had followed him 
North. One day we passed a house in the Blue 
Ridge Mountains and heard wailings and lamenta- 
tions. Some old women came out and, with 
shrieks and curses, accused us of murdering their 
children. We learned that Captain Wade, son of 
Senator Wade of Ohio, while carrying orders 
from General Buford, was followed on horseback 
and fired on by a mere boy. Wade waited until 
the boy, who continued firing, was quite near, 
when he turned and shot him. The boy fell di- 
rectly in front of his moth,er's house. 

During the summer and fall of 1863 the Cav- 
alry were engaged in following Lee, keeping 
Meade advised of his movements, and acting as 
pickets and escorts for various infantry corps. It 
was not until General Sheridan was called to com- 
mand the Cavalry in the East that it was formed 
into a compact corps and became the most efficient 
corps in the service. Every General officer, from 
Meade down, thought he must have an escort of 
mounted troops, and cavalry for his outlying 
pickets, so that all the Divisions and Brigades of 
the Cavalry were more or less broken up. The 



I04 Life in Tent and Field 

Second Brigade, which Devin commanded, was 
sometimes very much weakened in this way. 
However, in spite of this it did very efficient serv- 
ice and was constantly on the move on the rear 
and flank of Lee's Army, having frequent skir- 
mishes, and at times severe engagements. 

My duty was to keep the Brigade supplied with 
subsistence, wherever it might be, and sometimes 
it was a difficult task and often quite dangerous. 
Frequently the only source of information in re- 
gard to the course the Brigade had taken was the 
negroes. They would tell the truth as far as they 
knew, whereas the whites in most cases would try 
to mislead. Whenever the opportunity offered I 
acted on the field staff of General Devin. The 
General was somewhat deaf and could not always 
hear the bullets as they sang past his ears. The 
only sign of excitement I ever saw him show was 
to frequently try to light his pipe. The smoke 
would be pouring out of his mouth, and he would 
strike a match on the seat of his pantaloons and 
hold it right to his pipe. Whenever I saw this I 
knew there was something doing. 

On the tenth of October, 1863, the First Divi- 
sion of Cavalry, consisting of three Brigades, 
crossed the Rapidan River at Germanna Ford, to 
the south side, and marched ten miles up the river 
to Raccoon Ford. I was with Devin on this occa- 



Pursuit of Lee 105 

sion as aide. His Brigade had the rear and 
camped over night at Raccoon Ford. 

The next morning we moved farther up the 
river to Morton's Ford, where the Brigade was 
attacked by a large force. The situation was 
critical and General Devin had his pipe m full 
blast The ford was in bad shape and General 
Devin ordered me to take charge of the Pioneers 
and repair the approaches so that the artdlery 
could cross. To do this the bank had to be cut 
down on both sides and rails brought from the 
neighboring fences to make a kind of corduroy. 
Before the Brigade could get across we lost two 
Captains, some other officers, men and horses, 
killed and wounded. We kept up a runmng hght 
back to Stevensburg, and there had another sharp 
fight The enemy were held in check a sufficient 
time for us to cross the Rappahannock. We fell 
back to Brandy Station, where the Sixth New 
York made a very gallant charge, drove the enemy 
back and opened a way for Kilpatrick s Division 
to get out of a dangerous place. The two Divi- 
sions then drove the enemy back across the Rappa- 
hannock and this ended a bloody day. 



CHAPTER XIV 

VETERAN FURLOUGH 

In December, 1863, the Government sought to 
retain the service of its veteran troops, and offered 
a furlough of thirty days, transportation home 
and return, and a cash bonus to those who, having 
served three years, would re-enlist. The Sixth 
New York Cavalry was one of the first Regiments 

Uo re-enlist as a Regiment. We broke camp the 
1st of January, 1864, to start North. 

I was relieved from duty as Commissary and 
appointed Adjutant of the Regiment. In Wash- 
ington the men were housed in barracks in the cen- 
ter of the city, and drew their arrears of pay. 

]T)ne morning I was officer of the day, and when I 
visited the barracks a man was lying dead outside 
the building. There was no apparent excitement. 
A corporal told me a pickpocket had been caught 
robbing some soldiers and they had killed him and 
thrown him out of a window. He related the 
affair as though it were nothing of importance. 
I heard nothing more of it afterward. 

From Washington the Regiment was taken on 
106 



Veteran Furlough 107 

a regular train as far as Baltimore, where they 
were compelled to leave the train. After two 
days' delay a train was made up consisting of one 
decrepit passenger coach for the officers, and all 
the rest, box or freight cars. In this train we 
reached Harrisburg near midnight, and were told 
by the Pennsylvania Railroad officials that they 
could not take us to New York that night and that 
we would have to leave the train. 

The night was bitterly cold, and General Devin 
said that he would not let his men out into the 
streets to freeze. The railroad managers re- 
plied that they would have to put us on a side- 
track to let their express train pass, — whereupon 
I was ordered to detail a corporal and two men 
and place them over the engineer with instruc- 
tions not to move the engine either way. I told 
the engineer that the guard had loaded rifles, with 
instructions to shoot if he moved the train or left 
his engine. It was so late at night the railroad 
officials were unable to get in communication with 
Washington and were compelled to take us into 
New York that night. I have related this incident 
at some length to show how differently soldiers 
were regarded in those days. There were no Red 
Cross canteens to furnish light refreshments at 
the railroad stations. On the contrary there were 
many persons more interested in getting the sol- 
diers' money away from them. 



lo8 Life in Tent and Field 

The men had a good time at home and were all 

on hand at the expiration of their thirty-days fur- 
lough. They reported for duty in New York and 
we left there one afternoon by steamer for Alex- 
andria. Outside of Sandy Hook the weather was 
rough and the vessel rolled and pitched. All had 
got filled up with good things at home, of which 
most of them were relieved after a few hours. It 
was about the middle of February when we 
reached Alexandria, where we waited some time 
to be remounted, some of us having quarters at the 
Marshall House where the first officer in the war 
was killed. Colonel Ellsworth, commanding a 
Regiment of Zouaves, was sent to Alexandria 
with other Regiments to protect Washington. 
He was assassinated while hauling down a rebel 
flag which had been raised over the Marshall 
House. His death caused a tremendous sensation 
in the North. 



CHAPTER XV 

GENERAL GRANT MADE COMMANDER IN CHIEF 

Early in March, 1864, Grant was made Lieu- 
tenant General, and a little later was given su- 
preme command of all the armies of the United 
States. This was hailed with satisfaction by the 
Army of the East — in fact by the whole country. 
It took military affairs out of politics and put all 
the Departments under one supreme head. Here- 
tofore every General commanding a corps wanted 
to be at the head, and several had aspirations for 
the Presidency. Almost all the Brigadier Gen- 
erals got their appointments through political in- 
fluence. Colonels who had proved their merit in 
the field and were recommended for promotion by 
their superior officers, were subordinated to men 
who had no experience and nothing but a political 
pull to recommend them. 

March 23, 1864, General Sheridan was ordered 
from the West by General Grant, to Washington, 
and was given command of the Cavalry of the 
Army of the Potomac. He reached Washington 
April 4 and the following morning issued orders 

109 



iio Life in Tent and rield 

assuming command. Next to Grant, Sheridan was 
the greatest general of the war. 

Between Sheridan and Meade there was at first 
some friction. Meade wanted a large retinue and 
his headquarters looked like a small city, there 
were so many tents. He wanted the Cavalry to 
remain with his Army and furnish escorts and 
pickets, whereas Sheridan wanted the Cavalry to 
be a distinct and compact corps. General Grant 
was willing to give Sheridan his head, and the 
result showed which was right. Without Sheri- 
dan's Cavalry the war would doubtless have been 
prolonged, no one can tell how long. 

Grant was not long in getting his Army in mo- 
tion. On the third — fourth of May the Army of 
the Potomac crossed the Rapidan and a battle 
began which was not to end until the surrender of 
Lee at Appomattox. 

On the south side of the Rapidan I was with 
the Regiment as Adjutant, where they fought dis- 
mounted and held back quite a large force of Con- 
federate Infantry. A soldier next me was struck, 
in the face by a Minie ball and his nose and the 
flesh between his eyes and mouth carried away. 
He walked off the field and I never saw him again. 
He was the most horrible sight I ever beheld. I 
have always felt that I would rather be killed out- 
right than be so disfigured. 

Some days later we were engaged with a force 



General Grant Made Commander in Chief iii 

of Infantry in a large wood and got the enemy on 
the run. My duties as Adjutant were to keep the 
alignment and to prevent the companies from get- 
ting separated. I had in my hands a sharp car- 
bine which was fired by the use of a brass percus- 
sion cap. 

While I was endeavoring to close a gap be- 
tween two companies I saw a big Johnny stop and 
raise his gun at me. I dodged behind a tree and 
the ball struck the tree near my head. The man 
then turned to run and exposed a broad back. I 
took careful aim with my carbine which failed to 
go off. The brass percussion cap had dropped off. 
If the gun had gone off I would have bored the 
man through the spine for I had a sure bead on 
him. I felt a sense of disappointment much as I 
have since felt when hunting partridges and my 
gun, for some reason, has failed to discharge. 



CHAPTER XVI 

Sheridan's raid to Richmond 

On the fourth of May my regiment, the Sixth 
New York Cavalry, Crocker commanding, moved 
out toward Stevensburg and crossed the Rapidan. 
The next day we moved to Chancellorsville and 
encamped on the old battlefield. The point of 
woods where Jackson's advance had been halted 
showed what a hot place it must have been. Ev- 
ery tree and twig the height of a man's head had 
been cut by shell or rifle balls. There were large 
piles of human bones over which dirt had been 
thrown and washed away by the rains. Dr. San- 
ger claimed to be a phrenologist and the soldiers 
brought skulls for him to tell their nationality and 
proclivities. 

On the morning of the ninth Sheridan started 
on what he called his Richmond raid. The Sec- 
ond Brigade (Devin's) of the First Division, had 
the advance. We passed a long wagon train of 
wounded from the Wilderness — not a train of 
ambulances, but regular army wagons, without 
springs. The groans of the wounded were not a 




Washington 



MAJOR-GEN. PHILLIP H. SHERIDAN 



Sheridan's Raid to Richmond 113 

pleasant sound. That night after dark we 
reached Beaver Dam Station on the Virginia Cen- 
tral Railroad, where we captured a wagon train 
and about two hundred Federal soldiers who were 
being taken as prisoners to Richmond. We also 
captured two engines and a train of cars, and 
burned the railroad station which contained about 
two hundred thousand pounds of bacon. I well 
remember how it looked, piled up like cordwood — 
a pile about six feet wide, four feet high, and 
forty feet long. 

Two of our men got on to one of the captured 
engines and tried to signal another engine whose 
whistles we could hear two or three miles down 
the road. I was ordered, with a part of my Regi- 
ment, to destroy the railroad about a mile from 
the station. This was done pretty thoroughly by 
starting large fires and turning the rails and ties 
over on to the fire in a huge pile. The ties were 
burned and the rails warped. 

Two days later occurred the fight at Yellow 
Tavern. General J. E. B. Stuart, Commander of 
Lee's Cavalry, by forced marches, had got be- 
tween us and Richmond. In this fight Stuart was 
killed, and his Cavalry defeated. Stuart's death 
was a serious blow to the Confederacy and a cause 
of deep mourning to Lee. 

During this fight Colonel Crocker, with the 
Sixth New York, was ordered to clear the Brooks 



114 Li/^ in Tent and Field 

Pike, the principal highway leading from the 
North into Richmond. The Regiment was formed 
in column of platoons, and we advanced rapidly 
with Crocker and myself at the head, to where 
the road led through a line of earthworks which 
covered Richmond on the north. Here, with 
sabers drawn, we charged on a gallop and drove 
back toward Richmond a company of picket 
guards. We probably could have charged into 
Richmond without serious loss in getting in. How 
to get out was another question. We, however, 
halted and held the pike until after midnight, when 
Sheridan at the head of the Cavalry Corps came 
_up. 

While halted on the pike we could hear all the 
bells ringing in Richmond. A newsboy came out 
with papers which told of Stuart's death and the 
nearness of the Yankee troops. They were print- 
ed on one side, on coarse brown paper, resembling 
our cheap wall paper. I gave Sheridan the only 
copy I secured and have always regretted that I 
did not keep it. 

Sheridan led his corps by a road running east 
inside this line of earthworks, to the Meadow 
Bridge road, a road leading out of Richmond 
across the Chickahominy, which we reached about 
daylight. During the night march I was over- 
come with drowsiness, dismounted, and lay down 
beside the road, with instructions to Webster, my 



Sheridan at Meadow Bridges 115 

orderly, to wake me in ten minutes. When he 
woke me he asked if I heard a torpedo go off. 
The enemy had planted torpedoes in the road, 
with wires attached to explode the shell when the 
horses struck the wires, and one had exploded 
within a few feet of where I was lying. 

At Meadow Bridges Sheridan was attacked 
from all sides by a large force of Infantry from 
Richmond, and by Gordon's Cavalry from the 
South, while Fitzhugh Lee's Cavalry were on the 
other side the Chickahominy to contest our pas- 
sage. 

I was sent with the Sixth Regiment to repair 
the bridge. The planks had been removed but the 
string-pieces were left. We laid fence rails and 
such planks as we could find, so that dismounted 
troops could get across. 

As soon as the bridge was passable it was 
crowded with crossing troops. My Regiment was 
then relieved and I went up on the bluff and sat 
down by General Sheridan and watched the fight 
on the other side of the Chickahominy. General 
Devin crossed with the rest of his Brigade and 
when Sheridan saw him moving forward he said, 
with a sigh of relief, "It is all right, there goes 
Tommy Devin." 

General Grant, in his "Memoirs," page 155, 
says of this affair: 

"Sheridan passed through the outer defenses of 



ii6 Life in Tent and Field 

Richmond, and could, no doubt, have passed 
through the inner ones, but having no supports 
in near he could not have remained. After caring 
for his wounded he struck for the James River 
below the city, to communicate with Butler and 
to rest his men and horses as well as to get food 
and forage for them. 

"He moved first between the Chickahominy and 
the James, but in the morning (the twelfth) he 
was stopped by batteries at Mechanicsville. He 
then turned to cross to the North side of the 
Chickahominy by Meadow Bridges. He found 
this barred, and the defeated Confederate Cav- 
ali-y, reorganized, occupying the opposite side. 
The panic created by his first entrance within the 
outer works of Richmond having subsided troops 
were sent out to attack his rear. 

"He was now in a perilous position, one from 
which but few Generals could have extricated 
themselves. The defenses of Richmond, manned, 
were to the right, the Chickahominy was to the 
left with no bridge remaining and the opposite 
bank guarded, to the rear was a force from Rich- 
mond. This force was attacked and beaten by 
Wilson's and Gregg's Divisions, while Sheridan 
turned to the left with the remaining Division and 
hastily built a bridge over the Chickahominy un- 
der the fire of the enemy, forced a crossing and 
soon dispersed the Confederates he found there. 



Sheridan's Raid to Trevillian Station 117 

The enemy was held back from the stream by the 
fire of the troops not engaged in bridge building." 

In a short time the enemy were driven back 

and the column resumed its march to Haxall's 

, Landing on the James River where supplies were 

obtained. Sheridan rejoined Meade's Army May 

24th. 

On the first of June occurred the fight at Cold 
Harbor, a severe engagement in which Devin's 
Brigade took a part and in which Devin had a 
good deal of difl^culty in keeping his pipe lighted. 

Six days later Sheridan started on his Trevillian 
Station raid. I messed with Colonel Crocker, and 
the first day we lost our coffee. We had provided 
six days' supply, but a fresh contraband (negro 
servant) had boiled the whole lot for the first 
morning's breakfast. This was a serious loss and 
can be appreciated only by those who have had a 
like experience. We relied on coffee more than 
on solid food. 

Sheridan's force was away from the main army 
about two weeks on this raid to Trevillian Station. 
We had some severe fighting. I remember more 
clearly than anything else during the expedition, 
the support of a battery by the Sixth New York. 
This battery was a little back from the crest of a 
hill so that the muzzles of the guns just cleared the 
top of the hill. The enemy had a battery on a 
similar crest about a mile distant. We remained 



ii8 Life in Tent and Field 

dismounted behind the battery, holding our horses, 
far enough down the hill so that most of the 
shells passed over us although we had some cas- 
ualties. 

Having to lie still for so long a time, and listen 
to the shells coming close over our heads, was 
more trying to the nerves than active fighting. 



CHAPTER XVII 

PROMOTION. EXPLOSION OF PETERSBURG MINE. 
SHERIDAN ORDERED TO THE SHENANDOAH 
VALLEY. 

I was promoted May 24 to the rank of Captain 
and Commissary of Subsistence. My commission 
was signed by Abraham Lincoln, President, and 
Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War. I was as- 
signed as Commissary of Subsistence to the Re- 
serve Brigade, composed of three Regiments of 
United States Regulars, and one New York and 
one Pennsylvania Regiment, all commanded by 
General Wesley Merritt. 

Previous to my assignment a Lieutenant froml 
one of the Regular Regiments had been acting 
Commissary and had furnished the officers the 
supplies they needed, taking their "I. O. U." in 
payment. This was contrary to Army Regula- 
tions, as commissioned officers had a certain allow- 
ance for the purchase of their subsistence supplies. 

After my appointment, the officers, including 
General Merritt, continued to send orders with- 
out money to the Commissary, which I was com- 

119 



120 Life in Tent and Field 

pelled to refuse; whereupon General Merritt gave 
me a written order through his Adjutant General, 
to supply his officers until they should get their 
pay. I was surprised at this, as Merritt was a 
graduate of West Point and should have known 
the regulations. I explained to him that if I 
obeyed his order it would make him personally 
liable for all the debts his officers might contract 
with the Commissary and would be collected from 
his pay. He rescinded his order but it left with 
him a feeling of resentment toward me. This 
feeling was shared by the officers of the Regulars, 
who besides their inability to get supplies, had a 
feeling of contempt and enmity toward volunteer 
L_officers. 

Merritt shortly after issued an order forbid- 
ding the slaughter of cattle within a certain dis- 
tance of any of his Regimental Camps. The 
Army was supplied with beef by cattle driven on 
foot under charge of the Commissary, and slaugh- 
tered as required. A few days later I received 
an order of arrest signed by the Adjutant Gen- 
eral of the Brigade, "by order of Brigadier Gen- 
eral Wesley Merritt, commanding." I was 
charged with disobedience of orders in having 
cattle slaughtered within the prescribed limits. I 
felt quite disturbed, but found on investigation 
that the offal he had discovered had not been left 
by my herdsman but by those of another Brigade. 



Failure of the Mine Explosion 121 

When I proved this to Merritt he relieved me 
from arrest and had the grace to ask my pardon. 

I was much in favor with the enlisted men as I 
kept them better supplied than they had been 
before at any time, but I was afraid General Mer- 
ritt might make it unpleasant for me, and at my 
request was transferred to my old Brigade under 
General Devin. 

Those whose memories go back to the Civil 
War cannot fail to remember the explosion of the 
mine in front of Petersburg on the thirty-first of 
July, 1864, and the great disappointment through- 
out the country at the dismal failure of the effort. 
Everything had been carefully planned and troops 
and artillery concentrated to follow up and take 
advantage of the confusion of the enemy. The 
failure has been ascribed to the incompetence or 
cowardice of the officers in charge of the forces 
which were to enter the mine and attack the di- 
vided lines of the enemy. Some hours elapsed be- 
tween the explosion, which had opened a deep 
passage one hundred feet wide, and the attack. 

General Grant was deeply chagrined at this 
failure. To add to his troubles word reached him 
that the Confederate General, Early, had defeated 
our troops in the Shenandoah Valley, crossed the 
Potomac, entered Pennsylvania, burned the de- 
fenseless city of Chambersburg, and was threat- 
ening Washington. 



122 Life in Tent and Field 

I was on my way to the south of Richmond to 
supply my Brigade, which had been sent, on the 
failure of the mine, to destroy the Weldon Rail- 
road, when I received word to turn back as soon 
as possible after the issue of rations. This took 
most of the night, and before noon of the next day 
I was back at Haxall's Landing, where I received 
orders to leave my supply train and follow Sheri- 
dan to Washington, where he had already gone. 
Two Divisions of Cavalry were on transports 
when I reached the Landing. Two corps of In- 
fantry had preceded Sheridan for the defense of 
Washington, which was in a state of great con- 
sternation at the near approach of Early who was 
thundering at its defenses. 

Sheridan was ordered by General Grant to the 
Shenandoah Valley and given supreme command 
of all the forces in that Department. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

SHERIDAN IN THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY 

From the beginning of the war the Shenandoah 
Valley had been a bone of contention between the 
North and the South, lying between the Blue 
Ridge on the east, and the AUeghanies on the 
west. The Shenandoah River, called by the In- 
dians "The Daughter of the Stars," pursued its 
way north for one hundred miles, through a val- 
ley of the greatest fertility amid scenery unsur- 
passed in America, entering the Potomac at 
Harper's Ferry. The mountaineers living in the 
Blue Ridge from the mountain peaks could discern 
every movement in the valley and report to Gen- 
eral Lee, while several passes through the moun- 
tains enabled Lee to send troops from the Army 
of Virginia in haste to oppose any movement of 
the Federal forces or to attack our flank. 

The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad followed the 
Potomac west from Harper's Ferry and was sub- 
ject to frequent raids. Harper's Ferry, a little 
village at the north of the Shenandoah, became 
known to all the world when John Brown made it 

123 



124 Life in Tent and Field 

the base of his operations in his attempt to free 
the slaves. Thomas Jefferson had made his home 
there some of the time in order to gaze upon its 
superb mountain scenery. It was held by the 
Southern troops at the beginning of the war, but in 
1 86 1 was abandoned as untenable. The most im- 
portant military operations were further south, 
principally in the vicinity of Winchester, which is 
twenty-eight miles south of Harper's Ferry, and 
which is said to have changed hands over sixty 
times during the war. The possession of the 
valley was vital to Lee, not only because of its 
strategic vaUie as a highway between the North 
and South, but because Lee drew from it largely 
supplies for his Army. 

Sheridan was entrusted by Grant with the im- 
portant task of clearing the enemy out of the val- 
ley and of rendering it barren as a basis of sup- 
plies. How well he performed his task history 
has recorded. 

July 31 I fed my Brigade near the Weldon 
River, south of Richmond, and the morning of 
August 2 I was in Washington. My wagon train 
with its well trained animals and experienced 
drivers, I was most reluctantly compelled to leave 
behind. I had often, with this train, overtaken 
the Cavalry on a rapid march over difficult roads. 
^ In Washington a new train had to be gotten to- 
gether, untrained animals fitted to harness, new 



Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley 125 

and inexperienced drivers found, and wagons 
loaded with supplies. 

I attended to the loading of the wagons, and as 
fast as they were loaded they were started out on 
the road leading up the Potomac toward Harper's 
Ferry, with orders to halt at a point just outside 
the city. When the last one was loaded I found 
that the wagons, instead of being on the road to 
Harper's Ferry, were scattered all over Washing- 
ton. The drivers were citizens, not soldiers, were 
averse to leaving Washington for service in the 
field, and many of them had abandoned their 
teams. This caused nearly a day's delay. At last, 
with the aid of the Provost Guard, the wagon 
train was got under way, with a soldier on guard 
over each driver to prevent his running away. 
Even with this precaution some of them escaped. 

I reached Harper's Ferry the night of August 
fourth and halted over night at the base of Point 
of Rocks. One of the mules belonging to the train 
got loose and climbed the rocks where it was so 
steep a man could not follow him. 

The Potomac was forded August 5 with the loss 
of one wagon. Halltown, six miles south, was 
reached late that night and there I found my 
Brigade (the Second Brigade, First Cavalry Divi- 
sion). It took the rest of the night to issue ra- 
tions. In the morning before daylight the Bri- 
gade were all gone and the empty wagon train was 
sent back to Harper's Ferry to be reloaded. 



CHAPTER XIX 

ATTACK BY MOSBY. THE AUTHOR WOUNDED 

August 12 the entire wagon train of the Cav- 
alry Division, consisting of several hundred 
wagons and at least three miles long, in charge 
of Captain Mann, Assistant Quartermaster, was 
on its way south on the pike leading from Har- 
per's Ferry to Winchester. Winchester is the 
most important place in the Shenandoah Valley. 
It is about thirty miles up the Valley, south of 
Harper's Ferry, and at different times was the 
headquarters of both the Federal and Rebel 
Armies. It changed hands sixty-seven times dur- 
ing the war. The inhabitants when they got up 
in the morning did not know whether they were 
in Northern or Southern hands. The wagons of 
my Brigade had the rear of the train, under the 
charge of Lieutenant Everts, Quartermaster of 
the Sixth New York, and my wagons loaded with 
subsistence stores the extreme rear. 

About dark we went through Charlestown, 
where John Brown was tried and executed. Here 
the train was joined by a brigade of infantry 

126 



Attack by Mosby 127 

which was composed of raw troops enlisted for 
one hundred days' service. These troops marched 
in the front and rear of the train with a number 
of Companies scattered at intervals. 

About midnight, while passing through some 
woods, a light spring wagon belonging to a man 
who was authorized to follow the Army and save 
the hides of cattle butchered in the field, was cut 
out from the train of the Second Brigade, and 
run off through the woods on a cross road, by some 
boys who were barely out of their teens. Major 
Sawyer, the paymaster, was with the train, and 
his trunk containing $112,000 in greenbacks was 
in one of Lieutenant Event's wagons. The boys 
were doubtless after the money. Major Beards- 
ley of the Sixth New York, who had been North 
and was with the train on his way to rejoin his 
Regiment, accompanied by the mail carrier of the 
Sixth, overtook the wagon before it got out of 
the woods and brought it back to the train with 
both the young fellows prisoners. 

At this time I missed one of my wagons, which 
was loaded with coffee and sugar, and learned that 
it had broken down near Charlestown. With my 
orderly, I returned, found the wagon, made some 
temporary repairs, and started with it to overtake 
the train. About a mile north of Berryville a 
man, woman and girl were trying to get a cow into 
a small enclosure. I stopped and helped them to 



128 Life in Tent and Field 

secure the cow and inquired if Mosby had been 
seen in the vicinity. Both the women in a very 
contemptuous manner said we needn't be afraid of 
Mosby as he was probably a hundred miles away. 
The man, however, came near me and said in an 
undertone that Mosby had been in Berryville the 
night before, and that if we could get beyond 
Berryville he thought we were safe from an at- 
tack. At that time Mosby's name was familiar 
to everybody. He was called by Northerners a 
guerrilla. He had an independent command com- 
posed of one or two hundred young men whose 
homes were in the northern part of Virginia, and 
who were familiar with every path through the 
woods and mountains. When too hotly pursued 
or not actively engaged, they could be concealed, 
scattered at their various homes. By sudden and 
unexpected attacks on our wagon trains and on the 
trains of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad he in- 
flicted a good deal of damage. I had a presenti- 
ment that Mosby would be after our train, insuf- 
ficiently guarded as it was. I then rode forward 
with the intention of reporting the danger from 
Mosby to some officer of the Infantry. 

A short distance ahead I found the wagons of 
the Reserve and Second Brigades halted to water 
the animals. They were "parked," i.e., drawn up 
in lines on the north of a small stream. Only one 
team could water at a time, and as fast as a team 



Author Wounded 129 

was watered it went on and the next team drove 
into the stream. This necessarily took a good 
deal of time. The Infantry Guard were asleep 
on the ground and not an officer could be found. 
I rode forward and dismounted to watch my 
wagons as they came up out of the stream on to 
the road. 

To the east of Berryville is Snicker's Gap, 
through the Blue Ridge. Day was just breaking 
when from that direction came a few shells fired 
at the train, followed at once by a charge of 
Mosby's men yelling like Indians. There was no 
resistance. The Infantry Guard aroused from 
their sleep, scattered in all directions with hardly 
a shot. Those poor drivers who had been so re- 
luctant to leave Washington, left their teams and 
tried to escape but most of them were captured. 

I had tied my horse to a small tree and he had 
wound the hitching strap around the tree. The 
Johnnies came on so fast I had to cut the strap, 
and was trying to mount, when one of them put 
his pistol against my head and fired, the ball pass- 
ing through the hat and grazing my head. An- 
other, as I had my foot in the stirrup, shot me 
through the thigh and I fell to the ground. Sev- 
eral as they passed shot at me lying there. They 
were too excited to shoot straight. 

One man dismounted, snatched my saber, and 
rifled my pockets of watch, money and knife. I 



130 Life in Tent and Field 

had quite a sum of money belonging to the Gov- 
ernment which I saved by thrusting it up my shirt 
sleeve. 

From what I saw of Mosby's men I would not 
consider them very formidable. They were a wild 
lot of boys and would not have stood up against 
a good steady troop. As soon as they had charged 
past me I crawled under a vine which ran over 
some rocks and became unconscious from loss of 
blood. 

My last recollection was of Mosby giving or- 
ders and of two field guns placed directly over me. 
While lying under the muzzles of the guns I 
plainly heard Mosby give orders to his men to cut 
the animals loose and to set fire to the wagons at 
once, and not to stop to plunder, but to get 
across the river with the captured animals and 
prisoners as soon as possible. 

When I regained consciousness a number of 
Mosby's men were moving about collecting pris- 
oners. Two of them came to the clump of brush 
and vines where I was hid, and said, "Come out of 

there, you damned Yankee son of a b ," and 

both fired into the clump. I did not respond and 
they passed on. Others did the same at every 
little clump and used the same words. (An offi- 
cer who was a prisoner for some time, told me that 
the epithet had been applied to him so often he 



Moshy's Report 131 

could not hear it anywhere without turning his 
head in response.) 

Mosby, in his "Memoirs," states in regard to 
this affair as follows: 

"Through Snicker's Gap we crossed the Blue 
Ridge Mountains after sundown and passed over 
the Shenandoah River not far from Berryville. I 
halted at a barn for a good rest and sent Russell 
to see what was going on upon the pike. I was 
asleep when he returned with the news that a very 
large train was just passing along. There were 
325 wagons, guarded by Kenly's Brigade and a 
large force of Cavalry. They had not stopped 
to find out our numbers. We set a paymaster's 
wagon on fire, which contained — this we did not 
know at the time — $125,000. I deployed skir- 
mishers as a mask, until my command, the pris- 
oners, and booty were well across the Shenandoah 
River. We took between 500 and 600 horses, 
200 beeves, and many useful stores; destroyed 
seventy-five loaded wagons, and carried off two 
hundred prisoners including seven officers." 

Mosby was mistaken in regard to a Cavalry 
Guard. There were no Cavalry guarding the 
wagon train, and the Infantry Brigade he refers 
to consisted solely of men who had just enhsted 
for one hundred days and had never been in the 
field before. 



132 Life in Tent and Field 

In regard to the Paymaster's wagon which he 
says they burned, that is also a mistake. Some 
of his men got into the wagon but were easily 
driven out. Major Sawyer, Paymaster, the next 
day paid the Brigade with the money which 
Mosby says was burned. 

While I was still hidden under the vine a half 
dozen of our men, who had been in hiding, came 
up the road. When I called to them they were 
at first frightened, but I assured them I was a 
wounded Yankee officer, and they helped me out 
and put me on a horse they had caught. I took 
charge of the squad and we moved toward Win- 
chester, but had not gone far when we met the 
First Rhode Island Cavalry going toward the 
scene of the disaster. With them was Billy Web- 
ster, my orderly, riding his own horse and leadinp" 
mine. I waited while he went to a nearby farm 
house and got an old Virginia carriage and double 
harness for our two horses. He put the saddle in 
the carriage and I rode in state into Winchester. 

report of captain e. p. mckinney 

Harper's Ferry, W. Va., 

August 16, 1864 
Capt. W . H. H. Emmons, 

Assistant Adjutant General, Reserve Brigade, 
Cavalry Corps. 
Sir : I have the honor to report that on Friday, 
the twelfth instant, I started from this place with 



/Attack by Mo shy 133 

five days' rations for 2,250 men and extra stores 
for sales to officers, in wagons. The wagon train 
of this Brigade was composed of a few wagons 
carrying forage, ten wagons carrying subsistence 
stores, and the various regimental and headquar- 
ters wagons, and was in the rear of the entire 
train, which was commanded by Captain Mann, 
Assistant Quartermaster. From one mile this 
side of Charlestown the train was accompanied 
by a guard of Infantry, said to be a Brigade. 
About 2 A. M. of the thirteenth instant the rear of 
the train, i.e., the wagons belonging to my Bri- 
gade, after much trouble, caused by the inexperi- 
ence of the drivers and the newness of the mules 
to harness, went into park with the rest of the 
train (infantry and cavalry) at the stream this 
side of Berryville. It was daybreak in the morn- 
ing before the first part of the train had hauled 
out of park, and the wagons of the Second 
Brigade, which immediately preceded those of 
this Brigade, were beginning to cross the stream, 
when a few shots were fired by light howitzers 
from, I should think, a quarter of a mile distant, 
into the part of the train which was yet in park, 
which were almost instantly accompanied by a 
small number of mounted men, charging as for- 
agers, dressed in gray uniforms and carrying only 
revolvers, which they used with more noise than 
precision. The charge and also the howitzer 
shots came from the side of the road toward 
Snicker's Gap. The guards who accompanied us, 
as far as I could see, threw down their arms and 
ran away without firing a shot. The party that 
made the attack took away all the mules and fired 



134 ^'/^ ^w Tetit and Field 

the wagons which they could not get off, and es- 
caped without any molestation. All the wagons 
of this Brigade were captured or destroyed, as far 
as I could learn, with the exception of one wagon 
carrying officers' baggage of the First U. S. Cav- 
alry. My opinion is that a company of fifty men 
might have saved the train without loss, if they 
had made a stand in time. The property lost, for 
which I am responsible, was five days' rations for 
the brigade, stores destroyed for officers' supplies, 
all the quartermasters' and commissary property 
pertaining to the subsistence department of the 
brigade, and all my papers and vouchers of last 
month, this including books, ration returns, in- 
voices and receipts, receipts for payment of com- 
mutation of rations, etc. A wound received at 
the time the train was attacked prevented my 
making an earlier report. 

Very respectfully, sir, your obedient servant, 

E. P. McKlNNEY, 

Captain and Commissary of Subsistence, Reserve 
Brigade. 

In Winchester Dr. Streeter had charge of a 
little church used as a hospital filled with wounded, 
both Northerners and Southerners. I was taken 
into a little room at the right of the entrance and 
stripped. From my neck to my heels my under- 
clothing was soaked with blood which had run 
down my body while hidden under the vine where 
I lay with head and body down. 

I was being sponged when a troop of girls came 



Almost a Romance I3f 

in with refreshments for the wounded. Bass, the 
Hospital Steward, threw a blanket over me, and 
one of the girls sat down beside me. She said to 
me, "How do you feel?" I was somewhat em- 
barrassed and replied, "I feel pretty well, how do 
you do?" 

Some of the girls advised Dr. Streeter to put 
the rebel wounded out into the street, saying, 
"That's what they would do to you." 

Under Dr. Streeter's advice I asked the girl 
who sat by me if I might go to her house. Web- 
ster, my orderly, took me there in the old car- 
riage. I was given a large apartment, and food 
and flowers were brought to my room. The girl 
was bright and attractive. Any further romance 
was prevented by my departure the next morning. 

Colonel Scott of the Eighth Pennsylvania, had 
been wounded through the right shoulder. He 
came to my room to see me, and when he heard 
of my horses and carriage proposed that we start 
for home right away. It was quite risky but we 
resolved to take the chances. 

Near Berryville we were chased by a rebel 
picket and had to run our horses full speed. At 
Charlestown, where John Brown was tried and 
hung, we saw a party in rebel uniform but were 
not molested. Near Halltown at dusk we met 
quite a large party of Union men on the way back 
to their Regiments from hospitals in the North, 



136 Life in Tent and Field 

and had a good deal of trouble In getting them 
to believe we were Yankees, not Johnnies. At 
Harper's Ferry, Washington Junction, Baltimore, 
and Havre de Grace, officers came on the train to 
examine the passes of soldiers going North. 

On leaving Baltimore the train was crowded. 
A lady, wife of a Captain in the Navy, gave me 
part of her seat and persuaded a man in the seat 
forward to vacate so that I could rest my wounded 
leg. I mention this because it was so unusual for 
a soldier, whether wounded or not, to get any 
sympathy. 

In New York I went to the house of Dr. 
Tucker, a cousin, who took great pride in showing 
off my wound to his patients. 

I was lying on a couch in the doctor's office and 
heard a whispering in the hall and the doctor say- 
ing repeatedly, "Come in, come in!" The door 
opened and my brother came in. His surprise and 
delight at finding me there were beyond my power 
of description. A Captain Shipman in Bingham- 
ton had seen my name in the New York Tribune 
among the wounded, and frightened my mother 
by abruptly telling her. My brother started at 
once for the Shenandoah Valley to look for me, 
and was overwhelmed with joy at finding me alive 
in New York. 



CHAPTER XX 

CAMPAIGN IN THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY. 
SHERIDAN'S RIDE 

My recovery was rapid, and in about three 
weeks I was well enough to report for duty. My 
brother accompanied me as Commissary s Clerk. 
I was ordered to Martinsburg to draw supphes 
for Sheridan's Army. As soon as they were 
loaded in wagons furnished by the Quartermaster, 
we started up the Valley. The wagon tram in 
charge of a Quartermaster and myself, passed 
through Winchester before daylight in the morn- 
ing About two miles south of Winchester we 
encountered some of our troops, coming back in 
disorder, who told us that Early had made an 
attack that morning and that our army was de- 
feated and in full retreat. We at once sent a man 
back to Winchester to inform Sheridan, who had 
stayed there over night, on his way back from 
Washington. He, however, had already got the 
news and passed us a few minutes later on hi 
famous black horse, which Buchanan Reed has 

immortalized. 

137 



138 Life in Tent and Field 

Sheridan in his "Memoirs" says: — 
"We mounted our horses between half-past 8 
and 9, and as we were proceeding up the street 
which leads directly through Winchester, from 
the Logan residence, where Edwards was quar- 
tered, to the Valley pike, I noticed that there 
were many women at the windows and doors of 
the houses, who kept shaking their skirts at us 
and who were otherwise markedly insolent in 
their demeanor, but supposing this conduct to 
be instigated by their well-known and perhaps 
natural prejudices, I ascribed to it no unusual 
significance. On reaching the edge of the town I 
halted a moment, and there heard quite distinctly 
the sound of artillery firing in an unceasing roar. 
Concluding from this that a battle was in prog- 
ress, I now felt confident that the women along 
the street had received intelligence from the bat- 
tle-field by the "grape-vine telegraph," and were 
in raptures over some good news, while I as yet 
was utterly ignorant of the actual situation." 

Shortly after orders came from Sheridan to 
take the wagon train two miles north of Win- 
chester and there await further orders. Win- 
chester was about half and half, Union and Rebel, 
and the feeling there was very bitter. As we 
passed through not a Union man was to be seen, 
but the other element, men and women, were 
out on the street jeering at us and telling us that 



Sheridan's Shenandoah Campaign 139 

Sheridan had got what was coming to him, and 
that our Army was thoroughly Ucked. 

About dark we got orders to take the train 
back to join the Army, and as we again passed 
through Winchester, this time going south, not a 
Rebel was to be seen, but the Union element was 
on the street cheering and waving handkerchiefs. 
They had received the news of Sheridan's victory 
some time before. 

We reached the front with the supply tram at 
midnight. Around headquarters, scattered pro- 
miscuously and covering acres of ground, were 
all the spoils of war— batteries and caissons, small 
arms, some stacked and some thrown loose on 
the ground, horses and mules, wagons and pris- 
oners Our troops were asleep on the ground 
except a few who were on guard over the groups 
of prisoners. Early had certainly got what was 

coming to him. . 

The next day we started with the wagon tram 
back to Martinsburg for more supphes Later 
the railroad from Harper's Ferry to Wmchester 
was repaired and Winchester became our base 
of supplies. Some of our trams had been cap- 
tared and the railroads torn up by Mosby s n^^en. 
To stop Mosby's interference with our supples, 
Sheridan issued a proclamation '» the mhab tants 
of the Valley, informing them of h.s '"tention o 
destroy houses, barns, and everythmg which could 



140 Life in Tent and Field 

harbor Mosby, if his means of communication 
were again interfered with. This had its desired 
effect. His trains were perfectly safe after that. 

About this time troops were sent into the Lou- 
don Valley to destroy the crops of hay and grain 
and to bring away the animals. The Loudon Val- 
ley lies east of the Shenandoah, separated by 
the Blue Ridge, and had been a fertile source of 
supply for Lee's Army, and also a base of opera- 
tions for Mosby. The expedition ended after 
burning barns and mills, and driving thousands of 
cattle, sheep and hogs across the Shenandoah 
River. They had to swim the river to get across 
into our lines. 

In the latter part of December, my Brigade of 
Cavalry (the Second) went into Winter Camp 
at Lovettsville, which lies at the mouth of the 
Loudon Valley, separated from Maryland by the 
Potomac. Opposite Lovettsville on the Mary- 
land side is the small town of Berlin. A rope 
ferry from Berlin was the only means of com- 
munication between the two places. Some time 
previously when I passed through Berlin a ma- 
chine gun was placed covering the ferry. It stood 
there unguarded and evidently abandoned. It 
was constructed something like a revolver. The 
soldiers called it a coffee-mill gun because it had 
a hopper, like an old-fashioned coffee-mill, which 
held the cartridges as they were fed into the gun. 



Winter Quarters 141 

We were at Lovettsville about two months. 
The inhabitants of the Loudon Valley were gen- 
erally friendly. Supplies for men and horses were 
drawn in wagons from Harper's Ferry. 

I had been one day to Harper's Ferry for sup- 
plies, and had sent them back by wagon road on 
the south side of the river, while I returned by 
rail on the north side, and rode on the engine 
with the engineer. The train was late and I 
found the ferryman at Berlin asleep in his house. 
It was imperative for me to get back to camp 
before morning, ahead of my train. It was only 
by threats and promise of reward I could get tjhe 
ferryman to take me across. The wire cable was 
down and the river was swift and full of anchor 
ice, and the boat had to be poled across. We 
landed about a half mile down the river. 

The Regiments of the Brigade were stationed 
in a semicircle about Lovettsville and had built 
winter huts. These were made like dog cabins 
about twelve feet long and ten feet wide, with 
bunks for two men on each side, a door in one end, 
and a chimney made of logs with a fireplace, in 
the other. The cracks between the logs were 
chinked with mud, and the inside of the chimney 
plastered with the same substance. Each soldier 
was provided with a piece of muslin six feet 
square, out of which he made a shelter to sleep 
under in the field. These had buttonholes and 



142 Life in Tent and Field 

buttons on all four sides. By buttoning four pieces 
together a roof for the hut was provided which 
kept out the rain and let in light. 

One night the Sixth New York had a surprise 
party. A company of Mosby's men captured 
their pickets and rode into camp firing their 
pistols and yelling. Our men turned out in night 
uniform and soon had them on the run. The 
Johnnies killed one officer and wounded a number 
of men, and lost two men killed and a number 
wounded and prisoners. 



CHAPTER XXI 

EXPEDITION TO JOIN GRANT BEFORE RICHMOND 

In the latter part of February we broke camp 
and started South. There was a deep snow on 
the ground. I was ordered to draw rations of 
coffee, sugar and salt for Sheridan's entire force 
and forbidden to take anything else in the wagons, 
even a small tent for myself. The only tent in 
the whole command was one used by the Adjutant 
General. The whole Army slept on the ground 
in the snow. I, one night, got into a small house 
with no floor except the ground. It was occupied 
by an old woman who had a little fire in a fire- 
place. I had lain down for a night's rest when 
in came an officer of higher rank who ordered 
me out. It was his right, I suppose. I slept on 
the railroad which was near, and lay on the broken 
stone with which the roadbed was ballasted, where 
the snow had blown away. In the morning my 
orderly asked me how I liked my feathers. 

The column of mounted troops was perhaps 
ten miles long. One day the column crossed a 
small stream. Before all had crossed, the water 

143 



144 Life in Tent and Field 

had risen so that some horses were carried off 
and horses and riders drowned. It had rained, 
and rained hard, for two days and nights. Every- 
body was wet to the skin. 

The next morning Devin sent Mahnken, his 
Adjutant General, to me for some Commissary 
whiskey. I told him there was nothing doing, that 
Sheridan's orders were so strict I had not dared 
to put any whiskey Into the wagons. He came 
back a second time when I told him the same as 
before, but that if he would protect me with Sheri- 
dan I would see the Commissary Sergeant as to 
what could be done. The third time he returned 
and said the whiskey was for Sheridan and his 
staff and for all his officers. In some unaccount- 
able way a cask of whiskey had got in among the 
barrels of sugar and salt. 

When we rode into Staunton I took from a 
Johnny an old Revolutionary flint-lock horse 
pistol, which I kept. The old thing was of no 
value but I still have It. 

At Waynesboro among the mountains, Custer 
captured Early's entire force and took seventeen 
battle flags, which were carried by his escort up 
to the time of Lee's surrender. Custer was a 
dashing officer and loved a display. 

The wagon train consisted solely of an am- 
munition train and my train of subsistence stores. 
On the road to Charlottesville the wagons got 




GENERAL GEORGE A. CUSTER 



Expedition to Join Grant Before Richmond 145 

stuck in the mud. While waiting for help to move 
them I went into an elegant Southern house. I 
found only a lady, who told me that her husband 
was the English engineer who constructed the 
Menai Bridge; that our soldiers had taken several 
hundred bottles of wine and had destroyed her 
furniture and pictures, among them a painting by 
Landseer; and that some of the men were in the 
basement at that time. I ordered them out and 
came near being shot for my pains. They were a 
lot of men whom we called "dog robbers," who 
on a long march would get away from their com- 
mand and commit all kinds of depredations. 
These men were a curse to our Army. On a long 
march they would drop out of the column and 
when they again reported for duty claim that 
their horses were disabled and unable to keep up. 
By their plundering and robbery they did more 
than all the rest of the Army to embitter the in- 
habitants against the North. 

One of them one night stole my horse which 
was fastened close by where I was sleeping. The 
command moved at daylight, and after a long 
search I found the horse in possession of a gang 
who were having breakfast in picnic style, of 
bacon and eggs, honey, and various delicacies. 
The horse had been sheared and smeared so that 
I would not have known him but for a whinny 
he gave when he saw the mare on which I was 



146 Life in Tent and Fietd 

riding. With the help of my orderly, and by 
covering the gang with my revolver and by threat- 
ening to shoot the first man that moved, I re- 
covered the horse. 

During our halt at Charlottesville, I with some 
others called on the President of the University 
of Virginia, who treated us with courtesy and 
showed us through the building. There were no 
students there at the time. This University was 
founded by Thomas Jefferson in 18 19 and is still 
very flourishing and draws students from the 
whole country, some from the North. 

From Charlottesville we moved to the James 
River above Lynchburg, struck the James River 
and Kanawha Canal, and began its destruction. 
The canal was fed from the James River, which 
was then at a high stage, and when we cut the 
locks the water rushed through them in a torrent. 
The wagon train for a long distance followed the 
tow path which was between the canal and the 
river, and we were occasionally fired at by a small 
force of Confederates who kept opposite us on 
the south side. 

A crowd of about two thousand negroes fol- 
lowed the train. When we came to a bridge which 
was so narrow the mules could not draw the 
wagons across safely, they would unhitch the ani- 
mals and draw the wagons by hand. I asked one 
old darky why he left home to tramp so far. He 



Expedition to Join Grant Before Richmond 147 

said, "Because you all took all we had to eat." 
I asked him why they didn't hide it, and he 
replied, "Marse, we done hide it, we done bury 
it up in the groun', but when you all came along 
you dug it up jus' as if you know right whar 
'twas." 

A few miles above Lynchburg we re-crossed 
the canal on an open bridge, i.e., a bridge without 
any side rails or guard. This was a somewhat 
wider bridge than some, and we did not have the 
mules taken from the wagons. One wagon loaded 
with ammunition went overboard into the canal, 
dragging the six mules off the bridge, and wagon 
and mules all disappeared. I was told that there 
were two black babies in the wagon, and this was 
probably true as a good many women were carry- 
ing babies, and they got tired and slipped their 
babies into the wagons. 

At a small place through which we passed I 
obtained from a citizen some Confederate paper 
money, amounting, at its face value to over one 
hundred thousand dollars, in exchange for a 
small amount of coffee. The man from whom I 
got it said the Confederacy had gone up and the 
money was no good. 

White House is nearly east of Richmond, 
where the Richmond & Yorktown Railroad 
connects with the Pamunkey River. It was used 
as a base of supplies for McClellan's Army while 



148 Life in Tent and Field 

in front of Richmond. It is reached by boat and 
had a very good landing. At White House a 
large quantity of subsistence stores were turned 
over to me. These had been sent there by General 
Grant to await our coming. General Sheridan 
had sent some of his scouts through the Rebel 
lines to General Grant, asking for supplies to meet 
him at White House. It was reported that each 
of these scouts was promised several thousand 
dollars to deliver the message. 

I was ordered, while at White House, to issue 
rations to the negroes who followed us. It was 
very difficult to do this as there was no way to 
distinguish those who had been supplied from 
those who had not. To facilitate the business I 
had them divided into groups of one hundred, and 
guards placed over each group. They were so 
hungry that many would break away from the 
guard when they had got rations and join the 
next group so as to get a double supply. 

From White House we proceeded to join 
Grant's Army south of Richmond. The first day 
and night behind Grant's lines the bullets whizzed 
over our heads without intermission, sounding 
very close. The troops in the camp paid no at- 
tention and seemed unconcerned. The bullets 
must have come a long distance as I could not 
connect the whistle of a bullet with the sound of 
a gun, and they were higher in the air than the 



Expedition to Join Grant Before Richmond 149 

sound would indicate, as in the morning there 
were no holes in the canvas tops of the wagons. 
They doubtless came from the picket line which 
was probably on lower ground than our camp. 



CHAPTER XXII 

GENERAL WARREN RELIEVED. LEE's SURRENDER 

The next morning, March 28, 1865, the wagon 
train started by an inside road in an eastward 
direction, toward the left of our Army. It had 
rained most of the time since leaving Winchester, 
the last of February, and the roads were in a 
worse condition than could be imagined by one 
who had never seen a Virginia mud road. There 
seemed to be no bottom. While struggling in the 
mud, Custer's Division came back to help the train 
through, having been sent by General Sheridan. 
I rode forward to Dinwiddie Court House, where 
General Sheridan had his headquarters in a little 
tavern. This tavern and the Court House (both 
about the same size) and one or two dwellings 
comprised the County Seat of Dinwiddie County. 
A cavalryman gave me some papers he had taken 
from the Court House. 

I found General Devin engaged in a skirmish 
with Rebel Cavalry, and remained with him some 
time. Toward night he was driven back, infantry 
having reinforced the enemy's cavalry. Custer 

150 



Dinwiddle Court House 151 

was ordered up to help Devin. He arrived at 
the head of a long escort carrying the seventeen 
battle flags he had captured from Early's Army 
at Waynesboro, and followed by two brass bands. 
Without any delay he charged the enemy, with 
his bands playing and his men shouting for all 
they were worth. The enemy, supposing Devin 
had been largely reinforced, fell back. 

The next day I was with General Sheridan at 
Dinwiddle Court House. He seemed full of sup- 
pressed excitement. His eyes grew narrower and 
longer. When officers came with reports or for 
instructions he gave replies and instructions on 
the moment, without hesitancy or taking time for 
deliberation. The whole field and the position of 
every Regiment of his Army, he seemed to know 
by intuition. 

He could not brook delays but expected his 
orders to be executed as promptly as they were 
given. Because of General Warren's delays at 
the battle of Five Forks, Sheridan relieved him 
of command of the Fifth Corps. This required 
a good deal of nerve as Warren had been a popu- 
lar and successful officer, but Sheridan had been 
made by Grant responsible for the conduct of his 
corps and this was justified by the result. 

During the battle of Five Forks, April i, 1865, 
I saw a whole Division of Infantry seated on the 
ground, all gambling. They had been temporarily 



152 Life in Tent and Field 

relieved by another Division and were in rear of 
the firing line, not out of danger. Such a posi- 
tion without action is more trying than actual 
fighting. Gambling under such circumstances is 
perhaps excusable. 

In the early evening, after the battle, I met 
Brayton Ives, Colonel of the First Connecticut 
Cavalry, escorting to the rear with his Regiment, 
five thousand prisoners captured that day. Ives 
was a classmate of mine at Yale College. We had 
been intimate friends, had belonged to the same 
boat club, and had pulled together in the same 
boat in a Yale-Harvard race. I rode with him a 
way. He told me that he had among the prisoners 
, a prominent Yale graduate who had re- 
sided in the North and was indebted to the North 
for his education, but had joined the Southern 
Army. Ives said he intended to make him 
"hump." 

After the battle of Five Forks, Lee must havf 
known the certainty of his defeat. If he had sur- 
rendered without leaving Richmond he would 
have saved many lives and much loss to the South. 
Probably his best judgment was overruled by his 
advisers. He evacuated Richmond In great haste, 
withdrawing his troops during the night. Gen- 
eral Grant followed him at once, the cavalry 
taking the lead, and the supply train, under my 
charge, followed the cavalry with all speed pos- 



Expiring Efforts of Lee 153 

sible. As we passed along the Weldon Railroad 
I wondered how Richmond and Lee's Army could 
have got supplies. In many places where there 
were curves, fence rails were used on the lower 
side to prop up the rails and ties to keep them 
from sliding off. 

At this time I was joined by Rev. Joseph 
Twitchell, who wanted to be in at the death and 
who remained with me until after Lee's surrender. 
He had previously been chaplain of one of Dan 
Sickles' Regiments. In college we pulled in the 
same crew in several races and were quite inti- 
mate. He was large and athletic and was said 
to have carried some of the wounded off the bat- 
tlefield on his back. From his experience in the 
Army he was enabled to get through the lines. 
He desired to meet Sheridan, and I introduced 
him one day while Sheridan was riding along the 
road at the head of his staff. Joe's hat fell off 
and at the General's request one of his staff dis- 
mounted and returned the hat. 

I arrived at Sailor's Creek with the train while 
the fight was on. Sailor's Creek was about the 
last gasp of Lee's expiring Army. Beside the road 
we halted near a surgeon's tent, from which arms 
and legs came flying. The Union troops were 
wading the stream up to their armpits in water, 
under fire from the enemy on the other side. 
When our troops reached the opposite bank the 



154 Life in Tent and Field 

enemy skedaddled. I forded the stream with the 
wagon train, and as I went up the bank on the 
opposite side, the line which the enemy had held 
was plainly marked by dead bodies. One deep 
cut made by the water beside the road was filled 
with dead bodies fallen on each other. 

I issued rations to the troops as I had oppor- 
tunity, to one brigade here, to another there. The 
road from Sailor's Creek to Appomattox was 
strewn with arms^ knapsacks, canteens, bake-ket- 
tles. I was astonished at the number of bake- 
kettles left by the enemy. They were made of 
cast iron with a cover and were quite heavy. I 
did not see how, with their limited transporta- 
tion, they could carry them all. 

After the battle of Sailor's Creek, the pursuit 
of Lee's Army by Sheridan's Cavalry was like the 
rounding up of a flock of scattered sheep. At 
Appomattox Station supplies which Lee had or- 
dered there were captured, and Lee's only alterna- 
tive was surrender. There was very little pomp 
or circumstance attending the surrender. Gen- 
eral Grant and General Lee arranged the whole 
matter in a room by themselves. Lee's Army 
quietly broke up and the men returned to their 
homes. 

But for Sheridan's Cavalry, Lee might have 
held out for a considerable time. The mounted 
troops could move much faster than infantry. 



News of Lincoln's Death 155 

Sheridan gave his own men almost no rest, either 
night or day, nor did he give the enemy a mo- 
ment's rest. 

After the surrender of Appomattox, on our 
return toward Petersburg, the news of Lincoln's 
assassination reached the Army. The whole 
Army went into mourning. Many of the soldiers 
shed tears. Everyone felt a sense of personal 
loss. Nowhere throughout the country was more 
sincere grief than in the Army. Never in my 
whole intercourse with the Army did I hear a 
word of adverse criticism of Lincoln. The name 
"Father Abraham" was a talisman which insti- 
gated them to many heroic deeds and to patient 
endurance of privation and hardship. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

OUR LAST MARCH. THE GRAND REVIEW 

After Lee's surrender, on the twenty-fourth 
of April, Sheridan's Cavalry and the Sixth Corps 
of Infantry started for Greenville, N. C, to re- 
inforce General Sherman who was on his march 
to the sea. When we reached South Boston on 
the Dan River in North Carolina, we were or- 
dered back, as Sherman had already completed 
his victorious march. 

Our return to Washington was a long, tedious, 
dusty march, across North Carolina and the whole 
State of Virginia. It took nearly a month. We 
reached Washington without incident May i6 
and went into camp between Washington and 
Alexandria. On the twenty-first of May, 1865, 
we moved to Bladensburg, Md., in preparation 
for the Grand Review, and on the twenty-third I 
passed the White House in review with General 
Devin at the head of his Division. A few blocks 
beyond we broke ranks and I had a chance to 
see the other Divisions pass. Just as I got back 
to the White House one of the generals who was 

156 



The Grand Review 157 

fond of a display caused his horse to cavort, and 
his hat fell off, and he had to wait for a man to 
dismount and pick it up. 

It took all day of the twenty-third for the 
Army of the Potomac in column of platoons, ex* 
tending across Pennsylvania Avenue from curb to 
curb, in close formation, at quick step, to pass a 
given point. The following day, the twenty- 
fourth, was taken up by Sherman's Army in the 
same way. His men had a long, free and easy 
stride, eloquent of their long march across the 
States. Each of his Regiments had some pet or 
mascot carried by one of the soldiers — eagles, 
owls, roosters, dogs, opossums. About two hun- 
dred thousand men passed the White House in 
review May 23 and 24, 1865. Those who wit- 
nessed it, even the soldiers who were accustomed 
to the armies in the field, were overwhelmed with 
a sense of the power the Nation had put forth 
in the cause of a free Government. 



CHAPTER XXIV 



CLOSING SCENES 



The next day after the Review the Cavalry 
Regiments returned to their camps near Alex- 
andria, where they remained until they were paid 
off and mustered out. My tent was pitched on a 
little knoll from which I could see in all direc- 
tions. In it my clerk lived with me and kept his 
desk and papers. I had sent him one afternoon 
to headquarters with some papers. It was grow- 
ing dusk and a good deal past the time for his re- 
turn when, as I sat in front of my tent, I distin- 
guished him a short distance away apparently 
halted by two men. He was mounted on a black 
mule and wore no uniform, but had on a linen 
coat. There seemed to be some trouble and I 
grabbed a loaded revolver and started toward 
him on a run, in my stockings, without shoes. As 
I drew near he spurred the mule to get away. 
One of the men held him by his linen coat, which 
he tore in two and the coat tails were left in his 
hands. 

As my clerk recognized me he was off his mule 
158 



Closing Scenes I59 

in a second, and planted two blows, one with his 
right hand and one with his left, in the officer's 
face; then whirled him about and seizing one 
coat tail and then the other, ripped his coat up 
the back to the neck. 

I recognized in the two men a Captain of the 
New York Cavalry and his First Lieu- 
tenant. The Captain was a six-footer but my 
clerk was a mere stripling. I covered both offi- 
cers with my revolver while we got away and 
returned to our tent. But I anticipated trouble. 
We hid all our weapons and awaited develop- 
ments. In an hour's time my Commissary Ser- 
geant came to my tent and reported that the 

New York, with loaded rifles, surrounded 

the knoll on which was my tent, and threatened 
to blow n^y whole establishment to hell. I stepped 
out and could see their rifles on all sides gleaming 
in the moonlight. 

To my inquiry, "What troops are there and 
who is in command?" an Orderly Sergeant whom 
I knew stepped out and repUed: 

"This is Company of the New 

York. Our officers have been attacked and in- 
sulted, our Captain has both eyes blackened, and 
we propose to take satisfaction." 

I replied in a loud voice that all could hear: 
"You ought to be ashamed to bring a whole 
command armed with rifles to attack two unarmed 



i6o Life in Tent and Field 

men. Your Regiment has a high reputation for 
bravery. Your officers were not attacked. They 
themselves attacked my clerk, a mere boy." 

We learned later that the two officers had been 
to Washington and purchased new uniforms, that 
they had indulged freely, and on their return, 
meeting my clerk, had mistaken him for one of 
the natives. They had taken from him and de- 
stroyed his pass signed by General Sheridan, and 
but for my arrival would have given him rough 
treatment. 

The Sergeant took his men back, and the next 
morning both officers came to me, confessed that 
they had been drunk, and begged me not to prefer 
charges against them, which they said would be 
ruinous to their reputation in their home town 
where they were about going. I assured them 
that I did not care to carry the matter further. 
The Captain said that the coat which had been 
ripped up the back had cost him sixty dollars that 
day. Sixty dollars was a good deal of money at 
that time. 

We kept our tent standing one night, after all 
the Regiments had left, in order to finish our 
papers, and my clerk and I remained alone. The 
solitude seemed intense. The camps had been 
infested with thieves and robbers, who were like 
the vultures that hover over a field after a battle, 



Closing Scenes i6l 

and we took turns standing guard all night, rifle 
in hand. 

In spite of our best precaution some miscreant 
stole my blooded mare. She had carried me 
through many dangers and had been my pet and 
companion. We had eaten together and had 
drunk from the same bucket. She would follow 
me like a little dog. She had a pair of light heels 
and knew how to use them against strangers. I 
am sure she never became attached to another 
master as she was to me. She was a faithful 
friend and I mourned her loss many years. 

The Government furnished all officers and sol- 
diers transportation to their homes. 

It was wonderful how soon so great an army 
of men were swallowed up and absorbed in peace- 
ful pursuits. Although more than half a cen- 
tury has passed, I still dream of marching columns 
and the rattle of musketry. 



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